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A  STUDY  OF  THE  SUPERNATURAL  IN 
THREE  PLAYS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 


By  EDWIN  WILEY,  PH.D. 


A  STUDY  OF  THE  SUPERNATURAL  IN 
THREE  PLAYS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 


EDWIN  WILEY 


[Reprint  from  the  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  CHRONICLE,  Vol.  XV,  No.  4] 


COPYRIGHT,    1913 

BY 
EDWIN   WILEY 


A  STUDY  OF  THE   SUPERNATURAL  IN  THREE 
PLAYS  OF  SHAKESPEARE 


EDWIN  WILEY 


I 
JULIUS  CAESAE 

The  plays  of  Shakespeare  are  so  universal  in  scope,  and 
their  method  so  objective,  that  there  is  danger  of  going 
astray  in  drawing  conclusions  from  isolated  passages. 
The  fact  is  sometimes  lost  sight  of,  that  the  poet  was 
primarily  a  creative  artist,  whose  creed,  as  we  know,  not 
only  from  his  work,  but  his  words  as  well,  was  to  hold 
the  mirror  up  to  nature,  and  to  give  the  form  and  pres- 
sure of  the  time.  We  cannot  be  justified  in  asserting  that 
he  desired  to  formulate  any  system  of  religion,  ethics,  or 
philosophy,  yet  he  has  been  cited  as  an  advocate  of  all 
beliefs  and  no  belief;  an  idealist,  sensualist,  humanist,  and 
what  not;  a  determinist  and  an  indeterminist,  etc.  These 
inferences  have  been  drawn  from  his  work,  and,  perhaps, 
with  good  reason,  for  the  materials  of  his  art  were  the 
primary  sources  of  all  systems  of  knowledge  and  belief: 
nature  and  human  experience.  In  common  with  all  creative 
spirits  of  the  highest  type,  his  nature  was  plastic  and 
sympathetic  rather  than  dogmatic ;  mediatorial  rather  than 
partisan.  Thus  it  is  that,  even  in  the  portrayal  of  a  char- 
acter so  hateful  to  his  own  age  as  that  of  Shylock,  he  could 


[Copyrighted  by  Edwin  Wiley.] 


/i  o  *   «'> 

4 ,   .:.  o  \ 


not  avoid  instilling  a  certain  element  of  sympathy  and 
brotherhood  into  his  creation,  thereby  rendering  The  Mer- 
chant of  Venice  to  the  minds  of  many  a  tragedy  rather  than 
the  comedy  first  intended. 

It  would,  however,  be  equally  erroneous  to  assume  that 
one  of  such  power  and  insight  as  Shakespeare  could  concern 
himself  with  the  infinite  variety  of  human  relations  and 
collisions  without  formulating  some  sort  of  theory  regard- 
ing the  hidden  forces  of  which  they  are  the  outward  expres- 
sion. Just  what  this  theory  is  in  the  case  of  Shakespeare 
may  never  be  faithfully  determined,  yet  if  his  works  be 
taken  as  a  whole,  its  outlines  may  be  distinguished.  Thus 
we  know,  from  comparative  and  chronological  study  that 
his  plays  fall  into  three  groups:  (1)  the  lyric  and  objective 
productions  of  his  youth,  when  he  seemed  to  be  concerned 
mainly  with  the  problems  of  his  art;  (2)  the  more  serious 
and  ultimately,  tragic  creations,  which  concern  themselves 
with  the  tremendous  issues  of  evil,  of  destiny,  of  death; 
and  (3)  the  final  utterances  of  his  genius,  which  apparently 
indicate  that  he  has  attained  an  understanding  of  life's 
darker  questions  and  points  a  way  of  solving  them.  That 
this  rough  grouping  may  be  justified  is  shown  not  only  by 
the  spirit  of  the  plays,  but  also  by  the  themes  he  selected 
for  treatment  during  the  different  periods  of  his  creative 
activity.  That  Richard  HI  and  Romeo  and  Juliet  fall 
within  the  first  group  does  not  invalidate  the  point  made, 
for  the  first  is  essentially  a  part  of  the  chronicle  plays  upon 
which  he  had  been  working;  and  the  other  is  the  portrayal 
of  the  beauty  and  poetry  of  love;  the  tragic  fate  of  the 
lovers,  one  might  say,  being  little  more  than  an  incident, 
and,  indeed,  relatively  unmotived.  A  comparison  of  this 
play  with  that  of  Othello  clearly  reveals  how  far  they  are 
separated  in  spirit. 

Just  what  influences  entered  into  the  poet 's  life  to  cause 
him  to  pass  almost  abruptly  from  comedy  to  tragedy,  we  do 
not  know.  The  Sonnets  offer  a  certain  explanation,  and  one 
that  must  be  accepted,  until  it  is  proved  beyond  question 


that  they  are  merely  artistic  conceits  and  not  the  records  of 
a  personal  experience.  Whatever  the  external  causes,  this 
much  we  may  be  sure  of,  that  the  more  serious  aspects  of 
life  began  to  influence  Shakespeare's  art  about  the  end  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  This  mood,  suggested  in  his  brightest 
comedy,  As  You  Like  It,  by  the  character  of  Jacques, 
deepens  in  the  tragi-comedies  of  Much  Ado  About  Nothing 
and  Measure  for  Measure;  and  finds  its  definitive  expression 
in  Julius  Caesar  and  Hamlet.  For  nearly  a  decade  the 
problem  of  evil  held  him  as  in  a  spell,  and  he  studied  it 
from  every  aspect,  from  its  origin  in  thought  to  its 
flowering  in  deed;  apparently  seeking  throughout  all  its 
explanation  and  ultimate  cause. 

Doubtless  the  last  thing  Shakespeare  desired  to  be  was 
preacher  or  moralist.  Yet  since  morality  is  based  upon 
human  relations,  as  is  the  drama  itself,  there  are  ethical 
implications  in  the  plays  that  cannot  be  reasoned  away. 
Now  granting  that  there  is  persistence  of  human  person- 
ality after  death,  and  that  a  supernatural  world  truly  sub- 
sists, it  is  clear  that  man  has  certain  affiliations  with  that 
world.  Ethical  responsibility,  therefore,  does  not  cease  with 
human  relations,  but  extends  to  the  spiritual  cosmos  as 
well.  These  facts  have  been  so  universally  accepted  that 
the  greatest  minds  of  all  ages  have  been  seeking  the  laws 
that  determine  these  wider  affiliations  of  the  human  soul. 
In  face  of  Shakespeare's  knowledge  and  extensive  use  of 
material  drawn  from  the  lore  of  the  supernatural,  it  would 
be  remarkable  did  we  fail  to  discover  in  the  plays  any 
treatment  in  dramatic  form  of  man's  relation  to  the  world 
of  spirit.  That  he  essays  these  very  problems  the  most 
casual  study  of  Julius  Caesar,  Hamlet  and  Macbeth  would 
seem  to  verify. 

Julius  Caesar  is  noteworthy  for  several  reasons ;  it  is  the 
first  of  that  tremendous  series  of  tragedies  that  ends  with 
Timon  of  Athens  and  Coriolanus;  the  first  in  which  Shake- 
speare makes  use  of  materials  found  in  Plutarch's  Lives; 
and  the  first  in  which  the  supernatural  assumes  an  organic 


relation  to  the  play  as  a  whole.  The  study  of  his  attitude 
respecting  the  supernatural,  is,  however,  rendered  difficult 
by  the  fact  that  the  whole  drama  is  little  more  than  an 
artistic  transmutation  of  Plutarch's  narratives  of  the  lives 
of  Caesar,  Antony,  and  Brutus,  as  Englished  by  North. 
The  age  of  Plutarch  was  one  of  religious  and  philosophic 
chaos;  the  ancient  faiths  had  lost  their  hold  upon  the 
people,  who  became  victims  of  all  sorts  of  cults,  or  were 
openly  sceptical.  The  higher  classes  and  the  scholars, 
however,  had  substituted  philosophy  for  religion,  and  here 
confusion  also  reigned,  for  every  kind  of  sophistry  and 
philosophical  vagary  had  its  adherents,  the  general  trend 
being  towards  some  form  of  scepticism,  such  as  Pyrrhonism, 
Epicureanism,  or  Stoicism.1  Plutarch,  however,  was  a  Neo- 
Platonist,  a  mystic,  and  a  bitter  opponent  of  Epicureanism, 
hence  we  find  a  certain  stressing  of  the  supernatural  in  his 
works.2  He  was  likewise,  profoundly  interested  in  problems 
of  occult  philosophy,  and  in  his  essay  On  I  sis  and  Osiris 
develops  a  highly  dualistic  theory  of  good  and  evil.  He 
also  claimed  to  have  been  an  initiate  into  the  Dionysic 
mysteries. 

Therefore  Shakespeare  found  in  the  sources  of  Julius 
Caesar  a  systematization  of  supernatural  lore.  This  seems 
to  have  made  a  profound  impression  'upon""nim,  for  hints 
given  in  Plutarch  are  strongly  emphasized  in  the  play.  In 
^articular. -has  he  taken  the  incident  of  the  appearance  of 
the  apparition  to  Brutus  and  elaborated  it  so  as  to  portray 
the  spirit  of  Caesar  as  potent  after  death  as  the  living 
Caesar  was  before.  Plutarch  does  not  assert  that  the  appar- 
ition which  appeared  to  Brutus  on  the  night  before  the 
battle  of  Philippi  was  the  ghost  of  the  dead  Ceasar.  Shake- 

1  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  vol.  I,  chap.  2. 

2  On  superstition.    On  Isis  and  Osiris.    On  the  cessation  of  Oracles. 
On  the  Pythian  responses.     On  the  daemon  of  Socrates.     Letter  of 
consolation  to  his  wife.     Cf.  Super,  Between  Heathenism  and  Christi- 
anity (N.  Y.,  1899).     Greard,  De  la  Morale  de  Plutarque  (P.,  1902). 
Volkman,    E.,   Leben,   Schriften  und  Philosophie   des   Plutarch   von 
Chaeronea    (Berl.,    1893).      Oaksmith,    John,    Religion    of    Plutarch 
(L.,  1902). 


speare,  however,  has  so  interpreted  it,  rendering  the  infer- 
ence necessary  that  he  proposed  to  portray  the  disembodied 
spirit  of  Caesar  as  still  active,  and  battling  invisibly  with 
Antony  and  Octavius  against  Brutus  and  Cassius.  This 
interpretation  perhaps  explains  one  fact  that  has  proved 
puzzling,  which  is  the  naming  of  the  play.  Viewed  in  any 
other  way,  Brutus  would  have  been  more  appropriate  for 
the  title,  but  the  inference  is  clear  that  Caesar,  both 
incarnate  and  discarnate,  should  be  conceived  as  the  pro- 
tagonist of  the  drama, 

As  so  much  of  the  element  of  the  supernatural  is  found 
in  Plutarch,  Julius  Caesar  does  not  offer,  therefore,  as 
clear  a  statement  of  Shakespeare's  use  of  this  material  as 
Hamlet  and  Macbeth,  yet  the  fact  that  he  retains  and 
emphasizes  all  of  it,  renders  it  a  useful  commentary  on  the 
succeeding  plays.  It  has  already  been  indicated  that  nearly 
all  phases  of  occult  phenomena  are  used  in  Julius  Cfaesar: 
prophecies  are  uttered,  prodigies  and  omens  apear  on  the 
earth  and  in  the  skies ;  strange  dreams  are  recounted ;  a 
ghost  appears;  and  the  spirits  of  the  departed  incite  men 
to  deeds  of  revenge,  or  forecast  their  defeat  and  death. 

It  is  not  clear  that  we  are  to  understand  that  the  spirit 
of  Pompey  the  Great  is  inspiring  Cassius  to  conspire  against 
Caesar,  yet  a  passage  in  Plutarch  and  several  in  the  play 
would  suggest  such  inference.  In  Plutarch's  Life  of 
Caesar,  the  following  passage  occurs: 

It  is  also  reported,  that  Cassius  (though  otherwise  he  did  favor 
the  doctrine  of  Epicurus),  beholding  the  image  of  Pompey,  before 
they  entered  into  the  action  of  their  traitorous  enterprise,  he  did 
softly  call  upon  it,  to  aide  him:  but  the  instant  danger  of  the 
present  time,  taking  away  his  former  reason,  did  sodainly  put  him 
into  a  furious  passion,  and  made  him  like  a  man  half  beside  himself. 

The  passages  in  the  play  regarding  Pompey 's  spirit  do 
not  prove  this  point,  but  the  continual  allusions  to  his 
memory  are  suggestive: 


Marullus  — 

O  you  hard  hearts,  you  cruel  men  of  Rome, 
Knew  you  not  Pompey 

.......  (1:1:41) 

Cassius  — 

They  stay  for  me 
In  Pompey  's  porch. 

.......  (1:3:125) 

Brutus  — 

How  many  times  shall  Caesar  bleed  in  sport 
That  now  on  Pompey  's  basis  lies  along 
No  worthier  than  the  dust! 


Antony  — 

Even  at  the  base  of  Pompey  's  statua, 

That  all  the  while  ran  blood.  (111:2:192) 

There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  of  the  poet's  intention 
regarding  the  existence  and  intervention  of  the  spirit  of 
Caesar.  Any  interpretation  that  views  the  apparitions  of 
Caesar,  perceived  by  Brutus  at  Sardis  and  the  night  before 
the  battle  of  Philippi,  as  subjective  hallucinations,  is  utterly 
indefensible  and  tends  to  break  down  the  dramatic  unity  of 
the  play.  A  citation  of  passages  suffices  to  prove  this  point  : 

Brutus  — 

Let  us  be  sacrificers,  but  not  butchers,  Caius. 

We  all  stand  up  against  the  spirit  of  Caesar; 

O  !  then  that  we  could  come  by  Caesar  's  spirit, 

And  not  dismember  Caesar.    But,  alas! 

Caesar  must  bleed  for  it. 

.......  (11:1:166) 

Antony  — 

If  then  thy  spirit  look  upon  us  now, 

Shall  it  not  grieve  thee  dearer  than  thy  death, 

To  see  thy  Antony  making  his  peace, 

Shaking  the  bloody  fingers  of  thy  foes. 

.......        (111:1:195) 

Antony  — 

And  Caesar's  spirit,  ranging  for  revenge,    . 

With  Ate  by  his  side  come  hot  from  hell, 

Shall  in  these  confines  with  a  monarch's  voice 

Cry  '  Havoc,'  and  let  slip  the  dogs  of  war. 

(111:1:270) 


Antony  thus  invokes  the  spirit  of  Caesar,  and  as  a 
result  is  infused  with  a  spirit  and  power  that  amazes  the 
conspirators.  The  one  whom  Brutus  scorned  as  a  mere 
' '  limb  of  Caesar, "  ' '  a  reveller,  given  to  sports,  to  wildness, 
and  much  company '  '3  becomes  transformed  into  an  inspired 
orator,  an  able  general,  and  the  most  powerful  agent  in 
procuring  the  downfall  of  the  cause  of  the  conspirators, 
presence  of  Caesar's  avenging  spirit  is  indicated 
throughout  the  whole  of  the  scenes  following  his  murder. 
Bad  luck,  dissension,  and  disaster  haunt  Brutus  and  Cassius, 
until  they  are  finally  stricken  with  a  sort  of  panic  that 
hurries  them  to  their  doom. 

Not  only  this,  but  the  spirit  of  Caesar,  itself,  appears 
to  Brutus,  characterizing  itself  as  his  "evil  spirit": 

(Enter  the  Ghost  of  Caesar.) 
Brutus — 

How  ill  this  taper  burns!     Ha!  who  comes  here? 

I  think  it  is  the  weakness  of  mine  eyes 

Art  thou  some  god,  some  angel,  or  some  devil, 

That  shapes  this  monstrous  apparition. 

It  comes  upon  me.    Art  thou  anything? 

That  mak'st  my  blood  cold  and  my  hair  to  stare? 

Speak  to  me  what  thou  art? 
Ghost — 

Thy  evil  spirit,  Brutus. 
Brutus — 

Why  comest  thou? 
Ghost — 

To  tell  thee  thou  shalt  see  me  at  Philippi ! 
Brutus — 

Well;  then  I  shall  see  thee  again? 
Ghost — 

Ay,  at  Philippi. 
Brutus — 

Why,  I  will  see  thee  at  Philippi  then. 

(Ghost  vanishes.) 

Now  I  have  taken  heart  thou  vanishest: 

111  spirit,  I  would  hold  more  talk  with  thee. 

Boy,  Lucius !    Varro !     Claudius !     Sirs,  awake ! 


Julius  Caesar,  11:1:165,  188-9. 


8 

Brutus — 

Didst  thou  see  anything? 
Luc.— 

Nothing  my  lord. 

(IV:3:275) 

Voluvnnius — 

What  says  my  lord? 
Brutus — 

Why  this,  Volumnius: 
The  ghost  of  Caesar  hath  appeared  to  me 
Two  several  times  by  night;  at  Sardis  once, 
And  this  last  night  here  at  Philippics  fields. 
I  know  my  hour  is  come.  (V:5:16) 

The  failure  to  obtain  a  just  perspective  of  the  part 
played  by  the  supernatural  in  Julius  Caesar  has  led  to  some 
strange  vagaries  of  criticism.  The  most  noteworthy  are 
those  which  concern  themselves  with  two  details  of  the  play 
in  which  the  poet  deviates  radically  from  the  narrative  of 
Plutarch — with  the  stressing  of  the  infirmities  and  pettiness 
of  the  man  Caesar,  and  the  changing  of  the  phantom  which 
appears  to  Brutus  from  a  ''monstrous  spirit"  to  "Caesar's 
ghost."  With  regard  to  the  first  point  Professor  Dowden 
quotes  with  approval  the  following  passage  from  Gervinus : 

The  poet,  if  he  intended  to  make  the  attempt  of  the  republicans 
his  main  theme,  could  not  have  ventured  to  create  too  great  an 
interest  in  Caesar;  it  was  necessary  to  keep  him  in  the  background, 
and  to  present  that  view  of  him  which  gave  a  reason  for  the 
conspiracy.4 

This  interpretation,  however,  appears  far-fetched,  and  if 
Caesar's  spirit  be  viewed  as  a  reality,  is  an  assumption 
hardly  justified  by  the  facts  of  the  play.  Although  the 
parts  of  Brutus  and  Cassius  have  permitted  ambitious 
actors  so  to  stress  their  phase  of  the  action,  that  it  has 
commanded  the  interest  and  sympathies  of  the  hearers,  it 
seems  that  the  intention  of  the  play  is  clear.  As  has  been 
suggested,  we  have  no  reason  for  assuming  that  Shakespeare 
differed  so  strongly  from  his  age  as  to  deny  the  fact  of  the 

4  Dowden,  Shakespeare — His  mind  and  art,  p.  254. 


soul,  nor  that  the  soul  used  the  body  merely  as  a  temporary 
dwelling  place.  Nor  does  he  lead  us  to  infer  that  great 
souls  always  reside  in  god-like  bodies;  his  own  experience 
in  life  would  effectually  disprove  that.  Therefore,  in  por- 
traying Caesar  as  somewhat  of  a  physical  weakling,  the 
poet  is  endeavoring  to  express  the  thought  that  Caesar's 
spirit  was  greater  than  his  body,  and  far  more  powerful 
than  his  enemies  foreknew.  He  was  the  one  man  of  the 
time  necessary  to  the  unfolding  of  his  nation's  evolution, 
against  whom  the  forces  of  conservatism  fight  in  vain. 
Again  Professor  Dowden  says : 

The  ghost  of  Caesar  (designated  by  Plutarch  only  the  'evil 
spirit'  of  Brutus),  which  appears  on  the  night  before  the  battle  of 
Philippi,  serves  as  a  kind  of  visible  symbol  of  the  vast  posthumous 
power  of  the  dictator.5 

If  this  be  true,  then  why  the  need  for  changing  the  appar- 
ition from  * '  a  monstrous  spirit ' '  to  the  ' '  ghost  of  Caesar ' '  ? 
Using  the  argument  of  the  simplest  explanation  for  a 
phenomenon,  is  not  the  interpretation  that  Shakespeare 
intended  to  portray  the  actual  ghost  of  Caesar  not  only 
more  true  to  the  situation,  but  also  more  effective  from  the 
point  of  view  of  dramatic  art?  There  is,  however,  a  still 
more  powerful  justification  of  this  theory;  which_is_that 
the  whole  play  represents  the  transition  Jrom  the  material-  A 
istic  philosophy  to  spiritualistic.  We  know  that  Caesar 
and  Cassius  were  Epicureans,  the  basis  of  whose  philosophy 
was  a  denial  of  all  things  outside  of  the  sphere  of  the 
senses.  Yet  what  do  we  find  in  the  play  ?  Thus  Calpurnia, 
who  seems  to  have  shared  Caesar's  scepticism,  disturbed 
by  her  dream  and  the  many  omens,  says : 

Caesar,  I  never  stood  on  ceremonies, 

Yet  now  they  fright  me.  (11:2:13) 

Caesar  himself  is  unnerved  and,  in  spite  of  his  large 
boasts,  resolves  to  absent  himself  from  the  senate,  thus 
laying  himself  open  to  the  taunt  of  Decius : 

s  Dowden,  Shakespeare — His  mind  and  art,  p.  255. 


10 


'Break  up  the  senate  till  another  time, 
When  Caesar's  wife  shall  meet  with  better  dreams,' 

(11:2:98) 

and  the  scornful  comment  of  Cassius: 

But  is  is  doubtiul  yet 

Whether  Caesar  will  come  forth  today  or  no; 
For  he  is  superstitious  grown  of  late, 
Quite  from  the  main  opinion  he  held  once 
Of  fantasy,  of  dreams,  of  ceremonies.        (11:1:193) 

Yet  the  materialism  of  Cassius  was  likewise  destined  to 
tremble  under  the  blows  of  his  experience  : 

Cassius  — 

Messala, 

This  is  my  birth-day;  as  this  very  day 
Was  Cassius  born.    Give  me  thy  hand,  Messala: 
Be  thou  my  witness  that  against  my  will, 
As  Pompey  was,  am  I  compell'd  to  set 
Upon  one  battle  all  our  liberties. 
You  know  that  I  held  Epicurus  strong, 
And  his  opinion;  now  I  change  my  mind 
And  partly  credit  things  that  do  presage. 
Coming  from  Sardis,  on  our  former  ensign 
Two  mighty  eagles  fell,  and  there  they  perch  'd 
Gorging  and  feeding  from  our  soldiers'  hands; 
Who  to  Philippi  here  consorted  us: 
This  morning  they  are  fled  away  and  gone; 
And  in  their  stead  do  ravens,  crows  and  kites 
Fly  o'er  our  heads,  and  downward  look  on  us, 
As  we  were  sickly  prey:  their  shadows  seem 
A  canopy  most  latal,  under  which 
Our  army  lies,  ready  to  give  up  the  ghost. 


Brutus,  however,  was  not  an  Epicurean  but  a  Stoic,  and 
was  the  son-in-law  of  Cato  the  Stoic,  from  whom  Portia, 
his  wife,  inherited  the  quality  of  fortitude  revealed  in  the 
play.6  Brutus  condemned  Cato  as  untrue  to  the  Stoic 
philosophy  in  committing  suicide  after  the  battle  of 
Thapsus,  and  himself  played  the  Stoic's  part  most  con- 

e  Julius  Caesar,  11:1:291. 


11 


sistently,  meeting  all  things  good  and  evil  with  a  serene 
and  rational  spirit.  Without  a  tremor,  he  killed  his  best 
friend  for  the  cause  of  the  state  ;  he  so  thoroughly  concealed 
his  grief  for  his  dead  wife,  the  dearly  loved  Portia,  that 
Cassius  does  not  suspect  it  until  he  is  told;  and  last,  but 
not  of  least  suggestiveness,  carried  a  book  in  his  pocket  on 
the  battlefield.  Yet  this  same  fatalist  is  thrown  into  a 
panic  by  a  specter,  and  both  he  and  his  wife  commit  the 
crime  of  self-slaughter,  which  he  had  deemed  impossible 
according  to  his  philosophy  : 

Brutus  — 

Even  by  the  rule  of  that  philosophy 
By  which  I  did  blame  Cato  for  the  death 
Which  he  did  give  himself;  I  know  not  how, 
But  I  do  find  it  cowardly,  and  vile, 
For  fear  of  what  might  fall,  so  to  prevent 
The  time  of  life:  arming  myself  with  patience, 
To  stay  the  providence  of  some  high  powers 
That  govern  us  below. 

Cassius  — 

Then  if  we  lose  this  battle, 
You  are  content  to  be  led  in  triumph 
Through  the  streets  of  Borne? 

Brutus  — 

No,  Cassius,  no:  think  no,  thou  noble  Eoman, 
That  ever  Brutus  will  go  bound  to  Rome; 
He  bears  too  great  a  mind.    But  this  same  day 
Must  end  that  work  the  ides  of  March  begun; 
And  whether  we  shall  meet  again  I  know  not.^ 
Therefore  our  everlasting  farewell  take: 
For  ever  and  forever,  farewell,  Cassius! 
For  if  we  do  meet  again,  why,  we  shall  smile: 
If  not,  why  then,  this  parting  was  well  made. 


Thus  with  the  shadow  of  fate  upon  them,  both  went  to 
their  self-sought  deaths.  ''Mistrust  of  good  success,  "  says 
Messala,  was  the  explanation  of  their  failure,  but  Brutus 
and  Cassius  had  a  different  one  : 


12 


Cassius — 

Guide  thou  the  sword.    Caesar,  thou  art  reveng'd, 

Even  with  the  sword  that  killed  thee.      (Dies.) 

(V:3:46) 

Brutus — 

Titinius'  face  is  upward. 
Cato — 

He  is  slain. 
Brutus — 

0  Julius  Caesar!    thou  art  mighty  yet! 

Thy  spirit  walks  abroad,  and  turns  our  swords 
In  our  proper  entrails. 

.         .         .         .  (V:3:96) 

Brutus — 

Farewell,  good  Strato.     (He  runs  on  his  sword.) 
Caesar  now  be  still; 

1  kill'd  not  thee  with  half  so  good  a  will. 

(V:5:50) 


13 


II 

HAMLET 

The  story  of  Julmsi^Caesar  appears  to  have  made  a 
powerful  impression  upon  Shakespeare,  as  references  to  it 
are  to  be  found  in  both  Hamlet  and  Macbeth1  and  later  he 
reverts  to  Plutarch  and  carries  the  life  of  Marc  Antony  to 
its  logical  end  in  Antony  and  Cleopatra.  He  does  not  wait 
so  long,  however,  before  occupying  himself  with  the  theme 
of  supernatural  interference  with  the  concerns  of  men.  It 
is  generally  conceded  that  Hamlet  was  written  immediately 
after  Julius  Caesar,  probably  between  the  dates  1600-1602.2 
The  source  for  this  play  was  Belief orests 's  Histories  tragi- 
ques,  which  contained  the  story  of  Amleth  of  Denmark, 
taken  from  the  medieval  Danish  historian  Saxo  Gram- 
maticus.  There  was  also  an  earlier  version  of  the  play,  now 
lost,  referred  to  in  Thomas  Nashe's  introduction  to  Green's 
Menaphon,  which  may  have  supplied  the  immediate  outline 
of  the  play.  The  earlier  versions  of  the  story  of  Hamlet, 
however,  contain  little  of  those  elements  that  render  it  one 
of  the  superlative  creations  of  literature.  They  are  bald 
recitals  of  treachery,  murder,  and  revenge  attained  by 
shammed  insanity.  Such  materials  in  the  hands  of  a 
mediocre  talent  assume  the  form  of  Kyd  's  Spanish  Tragedy; 
in  the  hands  of  genius,  Hamlet.  Now  the  most  important 
additions  made-  by  Shakespeare  are  the  supernatural  ele- 
ments, the  peculiar  and  elusive  personality  of  the  chief 
character,  and  finally  the  marvellous  passages  so  full  of  wit 
and  wisdom. 

In  its  most  important  aspect  the  play  is  a  study  of  the 
supernatural,  and  though  the  heart  of  Hamlet's  mystery 

1  Hamlet,  1:1:112;  V:l:235;  Macbeth,  111:1:56;  V:8:l. 

2  Entered  in  the  Stationer's  Register,  July  26,  1602. 


14 


may  never  be  plucked  out,  nevertheless  the  approach  to  the 
play  by  that  route  may  offer  some  interesting  deductions. 
As  a  study  of  the  supernatural  Hamlet  is  the  logical 
sequel  to  Julius  Caesar,  but  it  states  the  problem  so  clearly 
and  distinctly  that  it  cannot  be  shuffled  aside  by  any  appeal 
to  subjective  mental  states.  In  the  first  place  the  Ghost  of 
Hamlet's  father  appears  four  times:  twice  to  common 
soldiers  of  the  watch,  the  third  time  to  Horatio,  a  sceptical 
philosopher,  and  finally  to  Hamlet  himself.  The  last  is 
the  only  one  of  the  group  who  has  any  of  the  characteristics 
of  a  ghost-seer.  In  the  second  place,  the  Ghost  conveys  to 
Hamlet  information  known  only  to  one  person  on  earth, 
the  guilty  Claudius,  who  esteemed  his  secret  so  closely 
locked  within  his  breast  that  it  could  never  be  disclosed. 
It  is  true  that  Hamlet  suspected  his  uncle's  guilt,  yet  the 
grounds  for  his  suspicions  were  so  slight  that,  barring  his 
mother's  hasty  marriage,3  he  could  find  no  justification  for 
them: 

0  most  wicked  speed,  to  post 

With  such  dexterity  to  incestuous  sheets! 

It  is  not,  nor  it  cannot  come  to  good: 

But  break  my  heart,  for  I  must  hold  my  tongue. 

(1:2:156) 

The  news,  however,  that  a  specter  appareled  like  his 
dead  father  had  been  seen,  gave  these  suspicions  yet  more 
force : 

My  father's  spirit  in  arms!    all  is  not  well; 

1  doubt  some  foul  play:  would  the  night  were  come! 
Till  then  sit  still,  my  soul:  foul  deed  will  rise, 
Though  all  the  earth  o'erwhelm  them,  to  men's  eyes. 

(1:2:255) 

Nevertheless  Hamlet's  intuitions  regarding  his  uncle  do  not 
invalidate  the  point  that  the  ghost  brought  Hamlet  infor- 
mation no  one  else  knew,  or  could  know,  save  the  King. 

3  Hamlet,  1:2:137. 


15 


Furthermore  the  apparition  conforms  in  all  respects  to 
the  traditional  characteristics  of  a  spirit  or  supernatural 
being.  It  appears  at  the  witching  hour  of  midnight,  and 
vanishes  at  the  approach  of  dawn;  it  cannot  be  injured  by 
blows;  and,  as  revealed  by  its  speech  to  Hamlet,  it  has  a 
powerful  reason  for  its  return  to  Elsinore,  the  quest  for 
revenge : 

Marcellus — 

Horatio  says  'tis  but  our  fantasy, 
And  will  not  let  belief  take  hold  of  Mm 
Touching  this  dreaded  sight,  twice  seen  of  us. 

Bernardo — 

Last  night  of  all, 

When  yond  same  star  that's  westward  from  the  pole 
Had  made  his  course  to  illumine  that  part  of  heaven 
Where  now  it  burns,  Marcellus  and  myself, 

The  bell  then  beating  one, 

(Enter  Ghost.) 
Marcellus — 

Peace!    break  thee  off;  look,  where  it  comes  again! 

Marcellus — 

Thou  art  a  scholar;  speak  to  it,  Horatio. 

Horatio — 

What  art  thou  that  usurp 'st  this  time  of  night, 

Together  with  that  fair  and  warlike  form 

In  which  the  majesty  of  buried  Denmark 

Did  sometimes  march?  by  heaven  I  charge  thee  speak. 

Marcellus — 

It  is  offended. 

Bernardo — 

How  now,  Horatio!    you  tremble  and  look  pale: 

Is  not  his  something  more  than  fantasy? 

What  think  you  on't? 
Horatio — 

Before  my  God,  I  might  not  this  believe 

Without  the  sensible  and  true  avouch 

Of  mine  own  eyes.  (1:1:23) 


16 

The  Ghost  disappears  at  the  crowing  of  the  cock ;  the  dawn : 

Bernardo — 

It  was  about  to  speak  when  the  cock  crew. 

Horatio — 

And  then  it  started  like  a  guilty  thing 
Upon  a  fearful  summons.    I  have  heard 
The  cock,  that  is  the  trumpet  to  the  morn, 
Doth  with  his  lofty  and  shrill-sounding  throat 
Awake  the  god  of  day;  and  at  his  warning, 
Whether  in  sea  or  fire,  in  earth  or  air, 
The  extravagant  and  erring  spirit  hies 
To  his  confine;  and  of  the  truth  herein 
The  present  object  made  probation. 

Marcellus — 

It  faded  on  the  crowing  of  the  cock. 
Some  say  that   'gainst  that  season  comes 
Wherein  our  Savior's  birth  is  celebrated, 
The  bird  of  dawning  singeth  all  night  long; 
And  then,  they  say,  no  spirit  dare  stir  abroad; 
The  nights  are  wholesome;  then  no  planets  strike, 
No  fairy  takes,  nor  witch  hath  power  to  charm, 
So  hallow 'd  and  so  gracious  is  the  time. 

Horatio — 

So  I  have  heard  and  do  in  part  believe  it. 

(1:1:148) 

It  was  the  medieval  belief  that  those  who  met  sudden 
death  unblessed  by  the  church,  even  though  virtuous  people, 
were  forced  to  spend  a  period  of  purgatorial  torment : 

Hamlet — 

He  took  my  father  grossly,  full  of  bread, 
With  all  his  crimes  broad-blown,  as  flush  as  May; 
And  how  his  audit  stands  wTho  knows  save  heaven? 

(111:3:80) 

Ghost — 

My  hour  is  almost  come 

When  I  to  sulphurous  and  tormenting  flames 
Must  render  up  myself. 


17 


I  am  thy  father's  spirit; 

Doomed  for  a  certain  time  to  walk  the  night, 

And  for  the  day  confined  to  fast  in  fires, 

Until  the  foul  crimes  done  in  my  days  of  nature 

Are  burn't  and  purg'd  away.    But  that  I  am  forbid 

I  could  a  tale  unfold  whose  lightest  word 
Would  harrow  up  thy  soul.  .  .  . 

Hamlet — 
O  God! 

Ghost— 

Eevenge  his  foul  and  most  unnatural  murder. 

Hamlet — 

O  my  prophetic  soul! 
My  uncle! 

Ghost — 

But,  soft!  methinks  I  scent  the  morning  air; 
Brief  let  me  be. 

Thus  was  I,  sleeping,  by  a  brother's  hand, 

Of  life,  of  crown,  of  queen,  at  once  dispatch 'd; 

Cut  off  in  the  blossoms  of  my  sin, 

Unhousel'd,  disappointed,  unanel'd, 

No  reckoning  made,  but  sent  to  my  account 

With  all  my  imperfections  on  my  head. 

(1:5:3) 

That  it  is  an  incorporeal  being,  and  not  some  person 
masquing  as  a  spirit,  is  made  clear  by  the  passage : 

Horatio — 

Stop  it,  Marcellus. 

Marcellus — 

Shall  I  strike  at  it  with  my  partisan? 

Horatio — 

Do,  if  it  will  not  stand. 

Bernardo —  'Tis  here! 


18 

Horatio—  'Tis  here!     (Exit  Ghost.) 

Marcellus — 

'Tis  gone! 

We  do  it  wrong,  being  so  majestical, 

To  offer  it  the  show  of  violence; 

For  it  is,  as  the  air,  invulnerable, 

And  all  our  vain  blows  malicious  mockery. 
Bernardo — 

It  was  about  to  speak  when  the  cock  crew. 

(1:1:139) 

If  these  passages,  therefore,  be  interpreted  according 
to  their  manifest  signification,  they  can  only  mean  that  the 
poet  presents,  here,  as  a  character  in  a  plgff,  a  visitant 
from  the  supernatural  world ;  a  spirit  that  has  consciousness 
and  self-direction,  coming  from  a  definite,  but  decidedly 
uncomfortable  place,  and  with  a  distinct  purpose  in  vi^ 
This  purpose,  furthermore,  is  ignoble;  that  of  revenge. 
The  crime  of  Claudius,  so  hideous  in  its  conception  and 
execution,  tends  to  cause  an  ignoring  of  the  fact  that 
Hamlet's  father  as  a  living  man  had  not  been  free  from 
human  sins.  We  know  that  he  was  courageous,  but  high- 
tempered  : 

So  frown  'd  he  once,  when  in  an  angry  parle, 
He  smote  the  sledded  Polacks  on  the  ice. 

(1:1:62) 

He  had  "An  eye  like  Mars  to  threaten  or  command";4  he 
was  sent  to  his  account  unshriven,  with  all  his  imperfec- 
\y(  tions  on  his  head,  guilty  of  "foul  crimes,. done  in  mgjdays 
of  nature";5  and  he  returns  from  purgatorial  flames  to 
balance  one  crime  by  inciting  the  commission  of  another. 
It  is  not  incredible  that  the  poet  believed  God's  laws  to  be 
as  valid  for  the  supernatural  worl£  as  for  the  natural,  and 
that  the  lex  talionis,  or  law  of  blood  revenge,  was  a  substi- 
tution of  a  finite  "kind  of  wild  justice"  for  divine  justice. 

4  Hamlet,  111:4:57. 

5  Hamlet,  111:3:80;  1:5:10. 


19 


It  was  fafi  universal  belief  of  the  medieval  times  that 
spirits  or  ethereal  beings  could  rarely  achieve  results  in  the 

physical  world  by  direct  agency;  the  theory  being  that  they 
acted  mainly  through  the  medium  of  some  human  being, 
whose  peculiar  physical  or  mental  constitution  rendered 
Jiim  subject  to  such  supernatural  solicitings.  It  is,  in 
short,  the  phenomenon  of  mediumship  or  possession;  a 
belief  which  goes  back  to  the  dawn  of  religions.  In  this 
connection,  a  contemporary  opinion  in  Burton's  Anatomy 
of  Melancholy  (A  digression  of  the  nature  of  spirits)  is 
illuminating.  Speaking  of  the  power  of  a  spirit  over  an 
individual  who  is  subject  to  supernatural  influences,  he 
says: 

Many  think  he  can  worke  upon  the  body  but  not  upon  the  minde. 
But  experience  pronounceth  otherwise,  that  he  can  worke  both  upon 
body  and  minde  .6 

Again  in  LeLoyer's  Treatise  of  Specters  (1605)  the  follow- 
ing passages  are  to  be  found: 

There  is  not  any  of  the  corporall  senses,  but  the  divell  may 
possesse  the  same,  and  use  it  at  his  pleasure,  if  God  do  permit  him.? 

The  divell  dooth  cast  himself  also  into  the  inward  and  interiour 
senses,  and  into  the  fantasie  of  men,  and  mooveth  them  in  the 
same  sorte  as  he  doothe  the  externall:  and  by  certayne  extasie  and 
alienation  of  their  spirites  which  he  causeth;  he  maketh  diverse 
formes,  specters,  and  phantosms  to  appear  in  their  imaginations: 
the  which  at  such  times  as  they  awake  from  sleepe,  will  so  lively 
represent  themselves  to  the  externall  senses,  that  a  man  cannot  be 
otherwise  perswaded,  but  that  he  hath  truly  and  indeede  seen  them. 8 

Who  are  the  ones  most  subject  to  supernatural  influ- 
ences? These  authorities  discuss  this  point  at  length,  and 
both  agree  that  melancholy  may  be  favorable  to  the  con- 
dition of  possession: 

6  Burton,  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,  3d  ed.,  p.  49. 

7  Le  Loyer,  A    Treatise   of   Specters,   p.  124  (verso).      Cf.   King 
James,  Daemonologie.     Glanvil,  Saducismus  Triumphatus,  pt.  2. 

sLeLoyer,  A  Treatise  of  Specters,  p.  124  (verso). 


20 


[/ 


This  humour  of  Melancholy  is  called  Balneum  Dioboli,  the 
Divels  bath:  the  Divell  spying  his  opportunity  of  such  humours, 
drives  them  many  times  to  despaire,  fury,  rage,  etc.,  mingling  him- 
self amongst  those  humours.9 

So,  if  the  Divell  doe  once  perceive  that  the  braine  is  troubled 
or  offended  by  any  maladies  or  infirmities  which  are  particularly 
incident  thereunto:  as  the  Epilepsie,  or  falling  evil,  Madnesse, 
Melancholy,  Lunatique,  fittes,  and  other  such  like  passions:  He 
presently  taketh  occasion  to  torment  and  trouble  it  the  more.io 

In  seeking  for  an  explanation  for  the  many  contradic- 
tions in  the  portrayal  of  the  character  of  Hamlet,  one  of 
the  first  solutions  in  Shakespeare's  day  would  have  been 
possession.  Modern  criticism  of  the  play,  however,  does 
not  offer  this  as  an  explanation  at  all,  so  thoroughly  has 
the  attitude  of  thought  changed  since  the  time  of  Elizabeth 
and  James. 

In  what  way  does  the  development  of  the  character  agree 
with  this  hypothesis?  In  the  first  place,  what  was  Hamlet 
during  his  father's  life?  We  know  that  he  was  a  scholar 
and  a  student  at  the  University  of  Wittenberg,11  Luther's 
school;  a  center  of  genuine  learning,  not  of  riot  like  that 
of  Paris.12  From  Ophelia's  lips  we  learn  of  him  as  the 
world  saw  him : 

Ophelia — 

O!  what  a  noble  mind  is  here  overthrown; 
The  courtier's,  soldier's,  scholar's,  eye,  tongue,  sword; 
The  expectancy  and  rose  of  the  fair  state, 
The  glass  of  fashion  and  the  mould  of  form, 
The  observ'd  of  all  observers,  quite,  quite  down! 
And  I,  of  ladies  most  deject  and  wretched, 
That  suck  'd  the  honey  of  his  music  vows, 
Now  see  that  noble  and  most  sovereign  reason, 
Like  sweet  bells  jangled  out  of  tune  and  harsh, 
The  unmatch'd  form  and  feature  of  blown  youth 
Blasted  with  ecstacy.  (111:1:158) 


9  Burton,  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,  3d  ed.,  p.  49. 
loLeLoyer,  A  Treatise  of  Specters,  p.  132  (verso). 

11  Hamlet,  1:2:164;  1:2:112. 

12  Villon,  Oeuvres.      Introduction    by    Longnon.     (Paris,   1892), 
Laurie,  Rise  and  Constitution  of  the  Universities.    (N.  Y.,  1891). 


21 


The  crude  psychology  of  Shakespeare's  age  divided 
people  into  different  dispositions,  or  "humours,"  and  it 
was  not  unusual  for  writers  to  give  representations  of 
certain  of  these  "humours"  in  characters.  That  Jonson 
did  this  we  know,  as  does  Shakespeare,  very  clearly,  in  As 
You  Like  It.  In  this  play  we  discover  the  affectation  of 
"humours"  in  Jacques,  and  the  man  genuinely  so  afflicted 
in  the  usurping  Duke  Frederick.  One  of  these,  indeed, 
according  to  Burton  and  other  contemporary  writers,  the 
source  of  nearly  all  the  destructive  "humours"  is  melan- 
choly. The  story  of  Burton's  own  life  and  work  is,  further- 
more, a  most  illuminating  commentary  on  the  character  of 
Hamlet.  It  is  evident  that  back  of  the  Blister  and  amazing 
creative  activity  of  the  Renaissance  Itrnndrd  a  depth  of 
seriousness,  world-weariness  and  fear  of  the  unknown  that 
we  can  never  fathom ;  glimpses  of  which,  however,  have 
been  given  us  in  Diirer's  engraving,  Melencolia,  and  the 
numerous  examples  of  the  Danse  Macabre. 

Hamlet  is  afflicted  by  melancholy;  he  says  so,  and  the 
others  say  so : 

King — 

How  is  it  that  the  clouds  still  hang  on  you? 

Hamlet — 

'Tis  not  alone  my  inky  cloak,  good  mother, 
Nor  customary  suits  of  solemn  black, 
Nor  windy  suspiration  of  forc'd  breath, 
No,  nor  the  fruitful  river  in  the  eye, 

That  can  denote  me  truly;  these  indeed  seem, 
For  they  are  actions  that  a  man  might  play: 
But  I  have  that  within  which  passeth  show; 
These  but  the  trappings  and  the  suits  of  woe. 

(1:2:67) 

The  King  says  to  Rosencrantz  and  Guildenstern  when 
he  sets  them  to  spy  on  Hamlet : 

King — 

The  need  we  have  to  use  you  did  provoke 
Our  hasty  sending.     Something  have  you  heard 


22 


Of  Hamlet's  transformation;  so  I  call  it, 

Sith  nor  the  exterior  nor  the  inward  man 

Eesembles  that  it  was.    What  it  should  be 

More  than  his  father's  death,  that  thus  hath  put  him 

So  much  from  the  understanding  of  himself, 

I  cannot  dream  of.  (11:2:3) 

Hamlet  intuitively  perceives  the  mission  of  these  spies, 
yet  to  them  he  unfolds  still  more  concerning  the  state  of 
his  mind,  letting  no  hint  fall,  however,  regarding  the  Ghost : 

Hamlet— 

What  have  you,  my  good  friends,  deserved  at  the  hands  of 

Fortune,  that  she  sends  you  to  prison  hither? 
Guildenstern — 

Prison,  my  lord! 
Hamlet — 

Denmark's  a  prison. 
Rosencrantz — 

Then  is  the  world  one. 
Hamlet — 

A  goodly  one;  in  which  there  are  many  confines,  wards, 

and  dungeons,  Denmark  being  one  o'  the  worst. 
Kosencrantz — 

We  think  not  so,  my  lord. 
Hamlet — 

Why,  then,  'tis  none  to  you;  for  there  is  nothing  either 
good  or  bad,  but  thinking  makes  it  so;  to  me  it  is  a 
prison. 

Further  he  says : 

Hamlet — 

I  have  of  late,  but  wherefore  I  know  not, — lost  all  my 
mirth,  foregone  ail  custom  of  exercises;  and  indeed  it  goes 
so  heavily  with  my  disposition  that  this  goodly  frame, 
the  earth,  seems  to  be  a  sterile  promontory;  this  most 
excellent  canopy,  the  air,  look  you,  this  brave  o'erhanging 
firmament,  this  majestical  roof  fretted  with  golden  fire, 
why,  it  appears  no  other  to  me  but  a  foul  and  pestilent 
congregation  of  vapours:  What  a  piece  of  work  is  man! 
how  noble  in  reason!  how  infinite  in  faculty!  in  form,  in 
moving,  how  express  and  admirable!  in  action  how  like 


23 

an  angel!  in  apprehension  how  lite  a  god!  the  beauty  of 
the  world!  the  paragon  of  animals!  And  yet,  to  me, 
what  is  the  quintessence  of  dust?  Man  delights  not  me; 
no,  nor  woman  neither. 

(11:2:245) 

Life  has  grown  so  distasteful  to  him  that  he  has  constant 
incitements  to  suicide: 

Hamlet — 

O!  that  this  too,  too  solid  flesh  would  melt, 

Thaw  and  resolve  itself  into  a  dew! 

Or  that  the  Everlasting  had  not  fix'd 

His  canon  'gainst  self -slaughter!     O  God!     God! 

How  weary,  stale,  flat,  and  unprofitable 

Seems  to  me  all  the  uses  of  this  world. 

Fie  on't!     Ah  fie!    'tis  an  unweeded  garden, 

That  grows  to  seed;  things  rank  and  gross  in  nature 

Possess  it  merely.  (1:2:129) 

Polonius — 

My  honourable  lord,  I  will  most  humbly  take  leave  of  you. 
Hamlet — 

You  cannot,  sir,  take  from  me  anything  that  I  will  more 
willingly  part  withal;  except  my  life,  except  my  life. 

(11:2:217) 

As  has  been  suggested,  comparison  of  Hamlet  with  its 
sources  reveals  that  the  important  modifications  Shake- 
speare has  made  are  the  introduction  of  the  Ghost,  and  the 
peculiar  disposition  of  his  hero.  The  differences  between 
Bellefdrest  rs  translation  of  Bandello's  tale  and  Shake- 
speare's Hamlet  are  so  remarkable  that  they  cannot  be 
explained  by  any  theory  save  that  of  direct  intention  on 
the  part  of  the  poet.  That  he  could  follow  his  sources 
slavishly  is  well  known ;  in  fact,  as  in  the  case  of  Plutarch, 
when  he  found  the  material  in  acceptable  dramatic  form 
he  did  not  deem  it  necessary  to  make  extensive  modifications 
in  the  narrative.  When  such  modifications,  however,  are 
made,  a  definite  dramatic  purpose  underlies  such  changes. 
Belief  orest  's  Hamlet  is  a  typical  character  of  a  bloodthirsty 
age,  who  feigns  madness  to  keep  from  being  sent  to  join 


\l 


24 


his  father  in  the  land  of  shades.  He  knows,  as  does  his 
mother,  that  his  uncle  murdered  his  father ;  he  avenges  his 
father's  death  in  a  direct  and  bloody  manner;  and  in  the 
end  comes  back  from  England  with  two  wives.  The  only 
passage  in  Belleforest  that  refers  to  the  supernatural  is, 
nevertheless,  very  significant : 

Hamlet,  while  his  father  lived  had  been  instructed  in  that 
devilish  art,  whereby  the  wicked  spirite  abuseth  man-kind,  and 
advertiseth  him  (as  he  can)  of  things  past.  It  toucheth  not  the 
matter  herein  to  discover  the  part  of  devination  in  man,  and 
whether  this  prince  by  reason  of  his  over  great  melancholy,  had 
received  those  impressions,  devining  that,  which  never  any  but 
himself  had  before  declared,  like  the  Philosophers,  who  discoursing 
of  divers  deep  points  of  philosophic,  attribute  the  lorce  of  those 
devinations  to  such  as  are  Saturnists  by  complection  who,  oftimes 
speake  of  things  which  their  fury  ceasing,  they  then  alreadye  can 
hardly  understand  who  are  the  pronouncers,  and  for  that  cause 
Plato  saith,  many  deviners  and  many  poets,  after  the  force  and 
vigour  of  their  fier  beginneth  to  lessen,  do  hardly  understand  what 
they  have  written,  although  intreating  of  such  things,  while  the 
spirite  of  devination  continueth  upon  them,  they  doe  in  such  sort 
discourse  thereof  that  the  authors  and  the  inventers  of  the  arts 
themselves  by  them  alledged  commend  their  discourses  and  subtill 
disputations.  Likewise  I  mean  not  to  relate  that  which  divers  men 
beleeve  that  a  reasonable  soul,  becommetn  the  habitation  of  a 
meaner  sort  ot  divels,  by  whom  men  learn  the  secrets  of  things 
natural. is 

These  crude  hints  of  the  supernatural,  contained  in  the 
sources  of  Hamlet,  could  not  be  portrayed  upon  the  stage 
sucessfully,  without  great  modification.  Shakespeare's 
problem  was  therefore  either  to  eliminate  them  entirely, 
or  to  deepen  them,  as  he  did  in  Julius  Caesar,  rendering 
them  more  concrete  and  objective.  It  was  his  intention, 
however,  to  concern  himself  * * with  thougnts ^beyond JjEe 
reaches  of  our  souls,"  and  he  could  do  this  only  by  strength- 
ening the  element  of  the  supernatural,  and  this  end  is 
attained  by  the  introduction  of  the  Ghost.  Accepting  this 

'•'   '  ***ftl*>*l**l****i*l*******>lllll*******i*i***HitikMtBHBf0&mB 

is  Hazlitt,  Shakespeare's  Library,  vol.  2,  Historic  of  Hamllet, 
p.  249. 


25 


view,  how  does  the  development  of  both  the  play  and  of  the 
character  conform  to  it? 

In  the  first  place  it  absolutely  destroys  the  theory  that 
Hamlet  was  insane.  His  mind,  indeed,  was  "not  tainted" 
or  organically  diseased,  yet  it  was  subject  to  strange  exalta- 
tions, despondencies,  intuitions,  and  rashnesses  that  were 
assumed  to  be  characteristic  of  people  under  supernatural 
spell  or  domination.  Consider  Hamlet  mad,  and  the  whole 
moral  idea  of  the  play  is  lost  with  his  loss  of  self -direction, 
and  the  production,  as  a  whole,  becomes  the  quintessem 
of  irrationality.  We  have,  therefore  the  portrayal  of  the 
struggle  of  two  wills:  that  of  Hamlet  himself ,  and  tnat  of 
,the  Ghost  which  is  continually  exerted  upon  him;  not  to 
speak  of  Hamlet's  objective  collision  with  a  social  order 
with  which  he  had  few  affiliations. 

When  Hamlet  is  met  by  Horatio,  who  is  coming  to 
inform  him  of  the  appearance  of  the  apparition,  he  gives 
the  latter  a  start  by  suddenly  exclaiming: 

Hamlet — 

My  father,  methinks  I  see  my  father.    J 

Horatio — 

O!  where,  my  lord?  / 

Hamlet—  j 

In  my  mind's  eye,  Horatio.  T 

(1:2:184) 

In  this  way  it  would  seem  that  the  poet  means  to  suggest 
that  the  influence  of  his  father's  spirit  was  already  being 
exerted  upon  Hamlet's  spiritual  senses,  which  is  further 
corroborated  by  the  passage  at  the  end  of  the  same  scene : 

Hamlet — 

My  father's  spirit  in  arms!    all  is  not  well: 
I  doubt  some  foul  play:  would  the  night  were  come! 
Till  then  sit  still,  my  soul:  foul  deeds  will  rise, 
Though  all  the  earth  o  'erwhelm  them,  to  men 's  eyes. 

(1:2:25) 


26 


Also  by  Hamlet's  speech  after  the  Ghost's  revelations: 
Ghost — 

The  serpent  that  did  sting  thy  father 's  life  now  wears  his 

crown. 
Hamlet — 

O  my  prophetic  soul! 
My  uncle!  (1:5:38) 

Hamlet  cross-questioned  Horatio  and  the  soldiers,  and 
discovered  that  they  were  telling  the  truth,  after  which  he 
exacted  a  promise  that  they  would  not  speak  of  their 
experience,  saying: 

If  it  assume  my  noble  father's  person 

I'll  speak  to  it,  though  hell  itself  should  gape 

And  bid  me  hold  my  peace.  (1:2:244) 

When  Hamlet  encounters  the  Ghost  it  refuses  to  speak, 
or  cannot,  until  he  is  apart  from  the  others,  and  they 
attempt  to  dissuade  him  from  following  it: 

Marcellus — 

Do  not  go  with  it. 
Horatio — 

No,  by  no  means. 
Hamlet — 

It  will  not  speak;  then  will  I  follow  it. 
Horatio — 

Do  not,  my  lord. 
Hamlet — 

Why,  what  should  be  the  fear? 

I  do  not  set  my  life  at  a  pin's  fee; 

And  for  my  soul,  what  can  it  do  to  that, 

Being  a  thing  immortal  as  itself? 

It  waves  me  forth  again;  I'll  follow  it. 
Horatio — 

What  if  it  tempt  you  toward  the  flood,  my  lord, 

Or  to  the  dreadful  summit  of  the  cliff 

That  beetles  o'er  his  base  into  the  sea, 

And  there  assume  some  other  horrible  form, 

Which  nyght  deprive  your  sovereignty  of  reason, 

And  draw  you  into  madness?  .  .  . 


27 

Hamlet — 

It  waves  me  still. 
Go  on,  I'll  follow  thee. 
Marcellus — 

You  shall  not  go,  my  lord. 
Hamlet — 

Hold  off  your  hands! 
Horatio — 

Be  rul'd;  you  shall  not  go. 
Hamlet — 

My  fate  cries  out, 

And  makes  each  petty  artery  in  this  body 
As  hardy  as  the  Nemean  lion's  nerves. 

(Ghost  'beckons.') 
•Still  am  I  call'd.    Unhand  me,  gentlemen, 

(Breaking  from  them.) 

By  heaven!    I'll  make  a  ghost  of  him  that  lets  me: 
I  say,  away!     Go  on,  I'll  follow  thee. 

(Exeunt  Ghost  and  Hamlet.) 
Horatio — 

He  waxes  desperate  with  imagination. 
Marcellus — 

Let's  follow;   'tis  not  fit  thus  to  obey  him. 

(1:4:62) 

After  his  interview  with  the  Ghost  Hamlet  shows  all 
the  symptoms  of  madness,  speaking  ''wild  and  whirling 
words,"  bat  finally  calms  down  enough  to  make  his  com- 
panions swear  a  solemn,  threefold  oath,  in  which  the  Ghost 
takes  part,  invisible,  but  audible.  Hamlet  knows,  too,  that 
henceforth  he  is  a  changed  man,  and  for  fear  lest  they  may 
reveal  the  cause  of  his  actions,  he  warns  them: 

Hamlet — 

There  are  more  things  in  heaven  and  earth,  Horatio, 

Than  are  dreamt  of  in  your  philosophy. 

But  come; 

Here,  as  before,  never,  so  help  you  mercy, 

How  strange  or  odd  soe'er  I  bear  myself, 

As  I  perchance  hereafter  shall  think  meet 

To  put  an  antic  disposition  on, 


28 


That  you  at  such  times,  seeing  me,  never  shall, 
With  arms  encumber 'd  thus,  or  this  head  shake, 

Or  such  ambiguous  giving  out,  to  note 
That  you  know  aught  of  me;  this  not  to  do, 
So  grace  and  mercy  at  your  most  need  help  you, 
Swear. 

Ghost  (beneath) —       Swear.  (They  swear.) 

Hamlet — 

Eest,  rest  perturbed  spirit.  (1:5:166) 

There  seems  to  be  no  escape  from  the  inference  that 
Shakespeare  was  endeavoring  to  portray  a  ghost-seer,  or, 
in  modern  terms,  a  spiritualistic  medium,  in  Hamlet. 
Throughout  the  play  the  characterization  is  consistent  with 
this  interpretation.  Thus  we  find  at  the  very  beginning, 
the  melancholy,  or  negative  state,  that  is  said  to  induce  such 
a  condition ;  clairvoyance ;  clairaudience ;  and  those  strange 
alterations  of  mental  aberration  and  sanity  that  have  been 
the  immemorial  marks  of  the  psychic. 

How  does  this  hypothesis  agree  with  Hamlet's  strange 
moods ;  his  times  of  inaction  and  lethargy,  and  his  bursts  of 
violent  activity  that  overleap  themselves?  In  the  first 
place,  the  influence  of  the  Ghost  upon  his  personality  is 
not  always  direct,  for  during  the  day  he  is  "confin'd  to 
fast  in  fires. "  "  It  is  noteworthy  therefore  thatjthe _only 
time  it  reappears  in  the  play  is  at  midnight,  when  Hamlet 
at  the  interview  with  his  mother  so  forgets  himself  in  his 
words  to  her  that  he  breaks  the  promise  to  leave  her  "to 
heaven  and  to  those  thorns  that  in  her  bosom  lodge." 

Hamlet — 

'Tis  now  the  very  witching  time  of  night, 

When  churchyards  yawn,  and  hell  itself  breathes  out 

Contagion  to  this  world:  now  could  I  drink  hot  blood, 

And  do  such  bitter  business  as  the  day 

Would  quake  to  look  on.    Soft!  now  to  my  mother, 

O  heart!    lose  not  thy  nature;  let  not  ever 

The  soul  of  Nero  enter  this  firm  bosom; 


Let  me  be  cruel  but  not  unnatural; 

I  will  speak  daggers  to  her,  but  use  none. 

My  tongue  and  soul  in  this  be  hypocrites; 

Now  in  my  words  soever  she  be  shent, 

To  give  them  seals  never,  my  soul  consent! 

(111:2:406) 

He  thus  perceives  the  danger  lest  he  work  himself  into 
a  frenzy  and  do  his  mother  harm,  which  indeed  was  the 
very  thing  that  threatened  when  the  Ghost  made  himself 
visible. 

(Enter  Ghost.) 

Hamlet — 

Save  me,  and  hover  o'er  me  with  your  wings, 

You  heavenly  guards!    What  would  your  gracious  figure? 

Queen — 

Alas!   he's  mad!  (111:4:103) 

The  Queen  could  not  see  the  Ghost,  either_because^er 
nature  was  too  material  to  sense  such  visitations,  or  because 
the  Ghost  did  not  choose  to  reveal  himself  to  her  (which 
power,  it  was  held,  they  possessed)  hence  she  assumed  that 
her  son  had  suddenly  become  insane.  He  hastens  to  assure 
her  he  is  not,  asks  her  to  test  him,  and  finally  exclaims : 

Mother,  for  love  of  grace, 
Lay  not  that  flattering  unction  to  your  soul, 
That  not  your  trespass,  but  my  madness  speaks. 

(111:4:144) 

Nevertheless,  whether  the  spirit  of  Hamlet's  father  was 
with  him  unceasingly,  the  influence  or  spell  was  never  away, 
and  apparently  he  acquired  abnormal  psychic  or  intuitional 
powers.  He  perceives  the  plots  of  the  King  against  him; 
informs  Rosencrantz  and  Guildenstern  of  the  secret  purpose 
of  their'  mission ;  tells  his  mother  that  he  is  to  be  sent  to 
England,  before  he  has  been  notified  of  the  fact ;  and  when 
the  announcement  is  made  expresses  no  astonishment : 


30 

King — 

Hamlet,  this  deed  for  thine  especial  safety 

Which  we  do  tender,  as  we  dearly  grieve 

For  that  for  which  thou  hast  done,  must  send  thee  hence 

With  fiery  quickness:  therefore  prepare  thyself; 

The  bark  is  ready,  and  the  wind  at  help, 

The  associates  tend,  and  everything  is  bent 

For  England. 

Hamlet — 

For  England. 

King- 
Ay,  Hamlet 

Hamlet — 

Good. 

King — 

So  is  it,  if  thou  knew'st  our  purposes. 

Hamlet — 

I  see  a  cherub  that  sees  them. 

(IV:3:42) 

rmlet — 
Sir,  in  my  heart  there  was  a  kind  of  fighting, 
That  would  not  let  me  sleep:  methought  I  lay 
Worse  than  the  mutines  in  the  bilboes.    Eashly, 
And  praised  be  rashness  for  it,  let  us  know, 
Our  indiscretion  sometimes  serves  us  well, 
When  our  deep  plots  do  pall:  and  that  should  teach  us 
There's  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends, 
Eough-hew  them  how  we  will.  (V:2:4) 

From  the  moment  of  his  interview  with  the  Ghost  there 
was  no  question  in  his  mind  of  its  reality,  yet  there  was 
another  question  that  must  be  settled:  was  the  spirit  an 
evil  or  a  good  one? 

Hamlet — 

The  spirit  that  I  have  seen 
May  be  the  devil:  and  the  devil  hath  power 
To  assume  a  pleasing  shape;  yea,  and  perhaps 
Out  of  my  weakness  and  melancholy 
As  he  is  very  potent  with  such  spirits 
Abuses  me  to  damn  me.    I'll  have  grounds 
More  relative  than  this:  the  play's  the  thing 
Wherein  I'll  catch  the  conscience  of  the  King. 

(11:2:627) 


31 

Hamlet — 

I  have  heard, 

That  guilty  creatures  sitting  at  a  play 
Have  by  the  very  cunning  of  the  scene 
Been  struck  so  to  the  soul  that  presently 
They  have  proclaimed  their  malef actions; 
For  murder,  though  it  have  no  tongue,  will  speak 
With  most  miraculous  organ.    I'll  have  these  players, 
Play  something  or  the  murder  of  my  father 
Before  mine  uncle:  I'll  observe  his  looks; 
I'll  tent  him  to  the  quick;  If  he  but  blench, 
I'll  know  my  course.  (11:2:618) 

It  is  therefore  for  two  purposes  that  the  poet  introduces 
the  episode  of  the  players  (a  thing  utterly  foreign  to  the 
original  sources  of  the  play)  :  to  force  the  King  to  self- 
revelation  of  his  crime,  and  at  the  same  time  to  prove  that 
the  Ghost  was  not  a  lying  spirit.  Hamlet  fears  lest  his 
suspicions  and  all  of  the  strange  occurrences  may  be  but 
monstrous  errors,  based  upon  no  more  solid  foundation 
than  the  wicked  speed  shown  by  his  mother  in  posting  to 
incestuous  sheets.  He  tells  Horatio,  therefore,  to  watch  the 
King  during  the  play,  explaining: 

If  iris  occulted  guilt 
Do  not  itself  unkennel  in  one  speech, 
It  is  a  damned  ghost  that  we  have  seen, 
And  my  imaginations  are  as  foul 
As  Vulcan's  stithy.  ^/    (111:2:88) 

The  result,  however,  was  just  what  he  anticipated,  the 
King  reveals  his  guilt,  and  is  thrown  into  a  state  of  panic 
and  remorse;14  and  Hamlet  becomes  hysterical,  again  full 
of  ' '  wild  and  whirling  words ' ' : 

Hamlet — 

For  thou  dost  know,  O  Damon  dear, 

This  realm  dismantled  was 
Of  Jove,  himself;  and  now  reigns  here 

A  very,  very — pajock. 


14  Hamlet,  111:3:36. 


32 


Horatio — 

You  might  have  rimed. 
Hamlet — 

0  good  Horatio!     I'll  take  the  ghost's  word 
For  a  thousand  pound.     Didst  perceive? 

Horatio — 

Very  well,  my  lord. 
Hamlet — 

Upon  the  talk  of  the  poisoning? 
Horatio — 

1  did  very  well  note  him. 
Hamlet — 

Ah,  ha!     Come  some  music!    come  the  recorders! 
For  if  the  King  likes  not  the  comedy, 
Why  then,  belike  he  likes  it  not,  perdy. 

(111:2:292) 

It  is  not  within  the  province  of  this  discussion  to  follow 
all  of  the  implications  of  this  theory  of  Hamlet.  It  should 
be  pointed  out,  however,  that  Hamlet  was  unfitted  by  tem- 
perament and  training  for  the  task  thus  supernaturally 
thrust  upon  him.  It  is  reasonable  to  assume  that  a  man  who 
was  disgusted  with  the  swinish  habits15  of  the  court  and  the 
people  in  general,  would  have  been  disinclined  to  play 
private  executioner  in  a  blood  feud,  however  much  he  or  his 
had  been  wronged.  His  high  ethical  standards,  his  philos- 
ophy, his  love  for  the  beautiful  in  art,  music,  the  drama,  and 
life  itself,  all  rebelled  against  this  unceasing  pressure  upon 
his  soul  exerted  by  a  being  in  the  world  of  shades.  Thus 
results  that  flux  of  activity  and  inactivity  that  makes  up 
the  play  of  Hamlet.  And  in  the  end,  all  of  his  plans  for 
revenge  come  to  naught ;  for  accident,  chance,  or  the  work- 
ing of  some  higher  law,  interfered,  and  precipitated  the 
final  catastrophe,  in  which  the  King,  the  Queen,  Laertes 
and  Hamlet  are  swept  to  the  beyond  in  a  carnival  of  death. 
It  is  only  by  Hamlet 's  dying  hand  that  Horatio  is  prevented 
from  sharing  their  fate,  Hamlet  imploring  him  to  "absent 
him  from  felicity  awhile, ' '  and  the  reason : 

15  Hamlet,  1:4:13. 


33 


O  good  Horatio,  what  a  wounded  name, 

Things  standing  thus  unknown  shall  live  behind  me! 

If  thou  didst  ever  hold  me  in  thy  heart, 


Absent  thee  from  felicity  awhile, 


And  in  this  harsh  world  draw  thy  breath  in  pain, 
To  tell  my  story.  (V:2:355) 

Now  the  story  Horatio  could  tell  was  that  of  the  Ghost 
and  its  revelation  of  the  guilt  of  the  King.  Both  Hamlet 
and  Macbeth  are  tracts  illustrative  of  the  dangers  of  sub- 
jecting one's  soul  to  the  control  of  the  spirits  of  the  vasty 
deep,  and  the  theme  of  the  former  is,  after  all,  "Vengeance 
is  mine,  saith  the  Lord." 


34 


m 

MACBETH 

When  the  plays  of  Hamlet  and  Macbeth  are  compared, 
an  interesting  distinction  is  observed  in  the  use  of  the 
supernatural.  In  the  former  we  find  the  hero  powerfully 
acted  upon  by  metaphysical  influences,  yet  mainly  against 
his  own  will  and  personal  tendencies.  The  play  in  its 
deepest,  sense,  is  the  picture  of  a  soul  torn  by  dual  ten- 
dencies: the  good  being  his  own  natural  nobility;  the  evil 
the  incitements  of  the  Ghost  to  revenge  and  murder. 
Hamlet,  himself,  see.ms  to  have  foreseen  what  was  in  store  " 
for  him  when  he  said : 

k 

The  time  is  out  of  joint;  O  cursed  spite, 
That  ever  I  was  born  to  set  it  right. 

(Hamlet,  1:4:189) 


In  Macbeth,  however,  we  find  the  hero,  after  a  few 
hesitations  and  struggles  with  his  better  self,  welcoming 
supernatural  evil  represented  in  the  form  of  the  Weird 
Sisters.  .Macbeth,  like  Hamlet,  is  a  ghost-seer.  He  becomes 
entranced  at  the  words  of  the  witches  (Banquo — "Look, 
how  our  partner's  rapt")  j1  he  is  highly  imaginative  and 
indulges  in  extravagant  flights  of  poetic  rhapsody;  he  has 
hallucinations  of  "air-drawn  daggers";  and  he  can  see  the 
specter  of  murdered  Banquo.  Furthermore,  in  the  case 
of  Macbeth,  there  is  another  distinction,  and  one  that  has 
an  important  bearing  upon  the  development  of  the  play  as 
a  whole.  This  is  the  fact  that  there  was  something  in 
Macbeth 's  soul  that  linked  him  with  the  powers  of  evil 
before  they  prophesied  to  him.  This  is  not  stressed,  yet  it 
is  there,  and  a  careful  reading  will  reveal  it. 

i  Macbeth,  1:3:142. 


35 


One  of  the  means  by  which  this  link  is  indicated  is  by 
the  words  on  Macbeth 's  lips  as  he  first  appears  upon  the 
scene : 

So  foul  and  fair  a  day  I  have  not  seen.        (1:3:38) 

These  are  but  an  echo  of  the  rune  of  the  witches  in  the 
first  scene: 

Fair  is  foul,  and  foul  is  fair. 

Hover  through  the  fog  and  filthy  air. 

Thus  early  in  the  play  is  its  dominant  note  sounded, 
which  rings  throughout  the  whole  action — a  veritable  leit 
motiv  of  doom : 

Banquo — 

Good  sir,  why  do  you  start,  and  seem  to  fear 
Things  that  do  sound  so  fair? 

(1:3:51) 

Banquo — 

But  'tis  strange: 

And  oftimes  to  win  us  to  our  harm, 
The  instruments  of  darkness  tell  us  truths, 
Win  us  with  honest  trifles  to  betray 's 
In  deepest  consequence. 

(1:3:122) 

Macbeth — 

(Aside.}     Come  what  come  may 
Time  and  hour  runs  through  the  roughest  day. 

(1:3:146) 

Duncan — 

There's  no  art 
To  find  the  mind's  construction  in  the  face. 

(1:4:11) 

Lady  Macbeth — 

Look  like  the  innocent  flower, 
But  be  the  serpent  under 't. 

(1:5:66) 

Macbeth — 

Away,  and  mock  the  time  with  fairest  show: 
False  face  must  hide  what  false  heart  doth  know. 
(1:7:81) 


36 


Donalbain — 

There's  daggers  in  men's  smiles. 

....          (11:3:146) 
Banquo — 

Thou  hast  it  now:  King,  Cawdor,  Glamis,  all, 

As  the  weird  women  promis'd,  and  I  fear 

Thou  play'dst  most  foully  for't. 

(111:1:1) 

Lady  Macbeth — 

Gentle  my  lord,  sleek  o'er  your  rugged  looks; 

Be  bright  and  jovial  among  your  guests  tonight. 

.....          (111:2:27) 
Macbeth— 

And  be  these  juggling  fiends  no  more  believed, 

That  palter  with  us  in  a  double  sense; 

That  keep  the  word  of  promise  to  our  ear, 

To  break  it  to  our  hope.  (V:8:19) 

In  a  larger  sense  these  significant  passages  are  reiterated 
in  the  action  of  the  play.  Duncan,  thus,  on  entering  the 
portals  of  Macbeth 's  castle,  from  which  he  will  never  go 
forth  alive,  says: 

This  castle  hath  a  pleasant  seat;  the  air 

Nimbly  and  sweetly  recommends  itself 

Unto  our  gentle  senses.  (1:6:1) 

To  which  Banquo  adds  those  lines  so  full  of  peace  and 
exquisite  beauty . 

This  guest  of  summer, 

The  temple-haunting  martlet,  does  approve 
By  his  loved  mansionry  that  the  heaven's  breath 
Smells  wooingly  here:  no  jutty,  frieze, 
Buttress,  nor  coigne  of  vantage,  but  this  bird 
Hath  made  his  pendent  bed  and  procreant  cradle; 
"Where  they  most  breed  and  haunt,  I  have  observed 
The  air  is  delicate.  (1:6:3) 

Again,  after  Lady  Macbeth  had  planned  his  death,  and 
made  invocation  to  the  "spirits  that  tend  on  mortal 
thoughts"  to  unsex  her  and  make  her  one  of  them,  the 
better  to  commit  the  deed,  we  find  Duncan  saying: 


37 


Fair  and  noble  hostess, 
We  are  your  guests  tonight.  (1:6:24) 

In  the  fourth  act  the  principle  is  reversed,  for  in  this, 
Malcolm,  in  order  to  test  Macduff,  is  discovered  concealing 
his  real  self,  claiming  that  he  is  a  demon  worse  than 
Macbeth : 

Nay,  had  I  the  power,  I  should 

Pour  the  sweet  milk  of  concord  into  hell, 

Uproar  the  universal  peace,  confound 

All  unity  on  earth.  (IV:3:97) 

Malcolm,  in  thus  giving  the  obverse  of  his  true  character, 
defines  in  no  uncertain  words  precisely  what  Macbeth  is, 
and  what  he  has  done.  In  this  play,  therefore,  we  are 
assured  that  the  poet  is  concerned,  with  that  deepest  of 
human  problems,  the  origin  and  existence  of  evil  in  the 
world.  He  had  touched  upon  this  question  in  its  manifold 
Tforins  in  the  earlier  plays,  and  his  general  attitude  at  the 
time  of  their  composition  appears  to  be  summed  up  in  the 
words  of  King  Henry  V: 

There  is  some  soul  of  goodness  in  things  evil, 
Would  men  observingly  distil  it  out, 

(Henry  V,  IV:1:4) 

and  in  the  speech  of  Friar  Lawrence : 

For  nought  so  vile  that  on  earth  doth  live, 
But  to  the  earth  some  special  good  doth  give. 

(Eomeo  and  Juliet,  11:3:17) 

It  is  true  that  he  had  depicted  villains  like  Angelo  in 
Measure  for  Measure,  or  Richard  III,  but  the  portrayal  of 
the  former  is  objective  and  perfunctory,  and,  as  for  the 
latter,  there  is  some  justification  for  his  villainy;  he  had 
been  schooled  into  it  by  his  enemies.  Furthermore  Richard 
was  a  fairly  faithful  reproduction  of  the  ancient  enemy  of 
the  Tudors  as  set  forth  by  the  chroniclers.  In  Macbeth, 
on  the  contrary,  we  are  face  to  face  with  the  fact  of  evil 
^itself,  and  have  revealed  to  us  by  a  series  oi'  powerfully 
symbolic  pictures  the  disintegration  of  a  human  soul. 


38 

To  understand  the  deeper  implications  of  Macbeth,  it 
is  necessary  to  refer  to  the  sources  of  the  play  in  order  to 
determine  just  what  modifications  have  been  made  by  the 
playwright.  The  original  story  of  Macbeth  was  narrated 
by  Hector  Boece  in  his  Scotorum  Historiae  (1526),  whose 
account  Holinshed  used  in  his  Chronicles  of  England  and 
Scotland  (1587) — the  treasure-house  of  the  Elizabethan 
dramatists.  Macbeth,  according  to  Holinshed,  was  a  cousin 
of  the  King  and  had  an  equal  title  to  the  throne:  both 
Duncan  and  he  being  grandsons  of  King  Malcolm's  sister, 
Beatrice.  The  crown,  however,  was  given  to  "soft  and 
gentle"  Duncan,  being  denied  to  Macbeth  who  was  brave, 
,lbut  cruel.  Although  the  Weird  Sisters  are  found  in  the 
source  of  the  play  they  have  few  of  the  characteristics  of 
[acbeth's  witches;  nor  is  Hecate,  the  queen  of  hell,  intro- 
Luced.  The  character  of  Banquo,  likewise  undergoes  a 
radical  modification,  whereas  in  Holinshed  he  is  portrayed 
as  an  accessory  of  Macbeth  in  the  murder  of  Duncan,  in 
the  play  he  refuses  to  act  upon  the  incitements  of  the 
witches.  The  appearance  of  Banquo 's  ghost,  and  the  super- 
naturalism  found  in  the  fourth  act  are  wholly  foreign  to 
thg  original  source  of  the  tragedy. 

The  question  arises,  why  these  changes?  We  know  that 
the  poet,  as  in  the  case  of  Plutarch's  Caesar,  when  he  saw 
fit,  could  adhere  almost  slavishly  to  the  text.  Furthermore, 
a  study  of  the  use  of  his  sources  reveals  that  he  usually  had 
a  definite  purpose  in  view  when  he  made  any  change. 

""T"  The  first  impression  we  receive  of  Macbeth  is  that  of  a 
hero  and  the  savior  of  a  state  fallen  into  disunion  under  the 
rule  of  a  good  but  weak  king.  Nevertheless  the  day  of 
jsuccess,  fair  though  it  appear  for  Macbeth,  carries  in  its 

-Jtbosom  the  hour  of  fatal  choice  for  the  victor.  The  moment 
of  triumph,  one  would  therefore  infer,  is  more  dangerous 
than  that  of  defeat,  for  there  are  standing  in  the  pathway 
of  each  man  in  the  hour  of  success,  evil  fates  beckoning  him 
to  destruction,  granting  of  course  that  there  is  some  taint, 
defect  or  subtle  bond  that  unites  him  with  the  powers  of 
'  evil. 


39 


Although  it  is  not  stressed,  in  the  play,  the  existence  of 
such  defect  is  clearly  indicated.    Macbeth 's  first  words,  as 
has  been  suggested,  echo  those  of  the  witch.     When  the  -* 
prophecies   are   spoken,    Macbeth 's   start,   his    momentary 
trance-like  condition,  and  finally  his  own  soliloquy,  reveal 
how  fertile  is  the  soil  into  which  fall  the  words  of  the 
witches.     He  is  theirs  already,  and  they  know  it.     The-» 
poet  has  carefully  avoided,  in  the  first  scenes  of  the  play, 
stressing  the  defect  of  cruelty  which  had  caused  the  his- 
torical Macbeth  to  lose  the  crown,  yet  he  did  not  wholly 
eliminate  it.    His  artistic  dilemma,  of  course,  was  to  create  "~ 
a  certain  sympathy  with  the  protagonist,  and  yet  to  prevent 
the  play  from  being  a  treatise  in  fatalism,  which  would 
have  been  the  case  had  Macbeth  been  merely  a  good  man 
led  astray  by  supernatural  solicitations.     There  is  a  bond    . 
that  connects  Macbeth  with  the  "lower-half-world,"  and 
the  poet  reveals  its  gradual  strengthening,  until  it  is  beyond 
his  power  to  break. 

Shakespeare,  with  exception  perhaps  of  lago,  has  never 
created  a  total  villain;  a  fiend  in  human  form.  Even 
Edmund,  the  bastard  in  Lear,  repented  his  wickedness  at 
the  last,  but  not  lago,  who  meets  his  death  with  the  words 
"Demand  me  nothing:  what  you  know,  you  know."  In 
life,  as  the  poet  perceived,  men  and  women  contain  in  their 
hearts  the  seeds  of  good  and  evil;  either  of  which  may  be 
nourished  and  brought  to  flowering  by  the  individual 
himself.  Of  the  possibilities  of  -evil  he  may  be  totally 
unconscious  until  the  hour  of  temptation  comes.  In  view 
of  this  fact,  how  luminous  with  respect  to  Macbeth,  there- 
fore, are  words  of  Hamlet: 

So,  oft  it  chances  in  particular  men, 

For  some  vicious  mole  of  nature  in  them, 

As,  in  their  birth, — wherein  they  are  not  guilty, 

Since  nature  cannot  choose  its  origin, — 

By  the  o'ergrowth  of  some  complexion, 

Oft  breaking  down  the  pales  and  forts  of  reason, 

Or  by  some  habit  that  too  much  o'er-leavens 

The  form  of  plausive  manners;  that  these  men, 


40 


Carrying,  I  say,  the  stamp  of  one  defect, 
Being  nature's  livery,  or  fortune's  star, — 
Their  virtues  else, — be  they  pure  as  grace, 
As  infinite  as  man  may  undergo, — 
Shall  in  the  general  censure  take  corruption 
From  that  particular  fault. 

(Hamlet,  1:4:23) 

This  is  the  poet's  commentary  on  the  character  of  Mac- 
beth, and  in  the  development  of  the  drama  he  reveals  the 
forces  that  bring  one  type  of  such  individuals  to  a  tragic 
end. 

-i  The  problems  of  the  whole  play  of  Macbeth  center  in 
the^'Weird  Sisters,  and  Macbeth 's  relation  to  them.  In 
the  first  place  there  are  great  differences  between  the  Norn- 
like  creatures  of  Boece  and  Holinshed,  and  the  witches  of 
Macbeth.  In  the  original  sources  they  are  called  * '  f  eiries  or 
weird  sisters,"2  and  these  have  none  of  the  disgusting  or 
abnormal  attributes  of  the  witches  in  Macbeth.  Externally 
the  latter  are  merely  the  witch-hags  of  the  country  side 
traditions.  They  are  not  only  ''wild  in  attire,"  but 
" wither 'd"  as  well,3  with  "skinny  lips  and  bearded  chins," 
suggestive  of  sexlessness.  They  have  familiar  spirits  in 
Graymalkin,  the  cat,  Paddock,  the  frog,  and  Harpier,  the 
dog.  The  first  scene  of  the  fourth  act  is  a  portrayal  of  a 
Witches'  Sabbath  with  its  foul  orgies,  its  brewing  of  hell- 
broth,  and  its  loathsome  incantations: 

1st  Witch — 

Thrice  the  brinded  cat  hath  mew'd. 

2d  Witch — 

Thrice  and  once  the  hedg-pig  whined. 

3d  Witch — 

Harpier  cries  'Tis  time,  'tis  time! 


2  <  <  There  met  them  three  women  in  strange  and  wild  apparell, 
resembling  creatures  of  elder  world.  Goddesses  of  destinie,  or  else 
some  nymphs  or  feiries. " — Holinshed 's  Chronicle  of  Scotland.  (1577). 

s  Macbeth,  1:3:40. 


41 


1st  Witch — 

Bound  about  the  cauldron  go: 
In  the  poison 'd  entrails  throw 
Toad  that  under  cold  stone 
Days  and  nights  has  thirty-one 
Swelter  'd  venom  sleeping  got 

Fillet  of  a  fenny  snake 

Eye  of  newt  and  toe  of  frog, 
Wool  of  bat  and  tongue  of  dog, 
Adder's  fork  and  blind-  worm  'a  sting, 
Lizard's  leg  and  howlet's  wing. 

Witche's  mummy,  maw  and  gulf 
Of  the  ravin  'd  salt-sea  shark, 
Eoot  of  hemlock  digg'd  i'  the  dark, 
Liver  of  blaspheming  Jew, 
Gall  of  goat  and  slips  of  yew 

Nose  of  Turk  and  Tartar's  lips, 
Finger  of  new-strangled  babe 
Ditch-deliver  'd  by  a  drab, 
Make  the  gruel  think  and  slab: 
Add  thereto  a  tiger's  chaudron, 
For  the  ingredients  of  our  cauldron. 

All- 
Double,  double  toil  and  trouble 
Fire  burn  and  cauldron  bubble.  (IV:1:1) 

In  the  first  act  (Scene  3)  the  petty  maliciousness  of  the 
traditional  witch  is  indicated.4  One  has  been  killing  a 
farmer 's  swine ;  another : 

A  sailor 's  wife  had  chestnuts  in  her  lap, 
And  mounch'd  and  mounch'd,  and  mounch'd. 

'Give  me,'  quoth  I: 

'Aroint  thee,  witch! '  the  rump-fed  ronyon  cries. 
Her  husband's  to  Aleppo  gone,  master  o'  the  Tiger: 


*  Lathbury,  A   detection   of  damnable  drifts  practized  by  three 
witches,  etc.    (1579). 


42 


But  in  a  sieve  I'll  thither  sail, 

And  like  a  rat  without  a  tail, 

I'll  do,  I'll  do,  and  I'll  do.  (1:3:4) 

are  thus  portrayed  as  things  of  evil,  but  of  petty 
evil,  anything  rather  than  nymphs  or  goddesses  of  destiny. 
Their  element  is  the  hurly-burly,  the  thunder,  lightning  and 
other  destructive  forces  of  nature,  and  over  these  they  have 
some  power  which  they  use  to  injure  those  who  have 
incurred  their  hatred.  King  James,  himself,  ascribed  his 
tempestuous  voyage  from  Denmark  with  his  bride,  Princess 
Anne,  to  witches,  and  personally  presided  at  the  trial  and 
torture  of  a  number  of  unfortunate  men  and  women  who 
were  accused  of  raising  these  storms  by  devilish  practices.5 
This  power  is  alluded  to  when  the  first  witch  says : 

1st  Witch— 

I'll  give  thee  a  wind. 
2d  Witch— 

Thou  art  kind. 
3d  Witch — 

And  I  another. 
1st  Witch— 

And  I  have  all  the  other; 

And  the  very  ports  they  blow, 

All  the  quarters  that  they  know 

I'  the  Shipman's  card 

Though  his  bark  cannot  be  lost, 

Yet  it  shall  be  tempest  tost.  (1:3:11) 

They  are  "posters  of  the  sea  and  land"  and  travel  with 
incredible  swif tness  on  their  abominable  missions ;  they  can 
sail  the  seas  in  sieves ;  can  change  their  shapes  at  will  into 
tailless  rats  or  other  foul  creatures;  cause  men  and  women 
to  pine  away  by  their  spells;  and  can  vanish  like  bubbles 
into  the  air.6 


s  News  from  Scotland:  Declaring  the  damnable  life  of  Dr.  Fian. 
6  Macbeth,  1:3:79.    Cf.  King  James,  Daemonologie. 


43 


There  are  traces,  however,  of  the  Norns  in  the  Witches 
of  Macbeth.  They  are  three  in  number,  like  the  Fates ;  the 
first  jyoiees  the  past  ("'flail  to  thee,  thane  of  Glamis!"); 
the  second,  the  present  ("Hail  to  thee,  thane  of  Cawdor !") 
and  the  third,  the  future  ("Thou  shalt  be  King  here- 
after!"). Furthermore,  that  they  are  divinities  of  evil  is 
shown  by  the  introduction  of  Hecate,  the  Queen  of  Hell, 
to  whom  they  apparently  act  as  aides,  and  are  reprimanded 
when  they  endeavor  to  mislead  men  without  consulting  her.7 

The  introduction  of  the  character  of  Hecate  has  been 
criticized  by  many  students  of  Shakespeare,  and  by  some 
ascribed  to  other  hands  than  those  of  the  creator  of  the 
play,8  yet  if  his  conception  of  Hecate,  as  revealed  by 
allusions  in  various  plays,9  be  considered  there  can  hardly 
be  any  question  but  that  the  character  was  introduced  by 
Shakespeare  and  plays  a  necessary  part  in  the  drama.  If 
the  witches,  themselves,  as  the  descendants  from  the  Norns 
of  Teutonic  myth  have  a  distinguished  lineage,  the  Hecate 
of  medieval  demonology  has  a  still  nobler  ancestry.  At 
first  as  great  Diana  (Artemis),  she  was  the  Moon-queen  of 
the  heavens ;  then  as  Demeter  or  Ceres,  she  was  the  goddess 
of  fecundation  and  growth.  Now  as  growth,  or  life,  also 
has  its  complement  or  corollary  of  death,  Demeter  had  her 
negative  phase  as  developed  in  the  mythus  of  Persephone, 
who,  for  the  half-year  (winter  or  death)  becomes  the  queen 
of  the  realm  of  Pluto  or  Dis.  Hence  the  medieval  icono- 
clasts, who  transmuted  all  the  pagan  deities  into  devils, 
perceiving  that  Hecate  was  already,  in  some  of  her  aspects, 
the  feminine  expression  of  the  mysteries  of  night,  of  winter 
and  of  death,  made  her  therefore  the  complement  of 
Satan,  and  the  queen  of  all  things  dark  and  evil.  These 
composite  elements  tended  to  make  her  the  patron  deity  of 
witchcraft  and  all  occult  and  secret  practices  of  the  night. 

7  Macbeth,  IV  :1. 

8  Fleay,  Witch  Scenes  in  Macbeth  (N.  S.  Soc.  Trans.) ;  Spanieling, 
Witch  Scenes  in  Macbeth  (N.  S.  Soc.  Trans.);  Farnell,  L.  K.,  Cults 
of  the  Greek  States,  vol.  2;  St.  Clair,  G.,  Myths  of  Greece,  vol.  1. 

»  Mid-Summer  Night's  Dream,  V:l:390;  Hamlet,  111:2:269;  Lear, 
1:1:112;  Macbeth,  11:2:51. 


44 

Now,  if  we  follow  carefully  the  construction  of  the  witch 
episodes  in  the  play,  the  relation  Macbeth  bears  to  the 
supernatural  world  of  evil  becomes  clear.  Here  lies  the 
nexus  of  the  problems  presented,  and  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Ghost  in  Hamlet,  the  point  of  view  of  the  reader  regard- 
ing the  witches  will  absolutely  change  his  conception  of 
Macbeth 's  character.  If  they  are  conceived  as  projec- 
tions, merely,  of  Macbeth 's  soul — pictures,  as  it  were  of 
that  inner  self,  hidden  at  first,  but  afterwards  revealed — 
then  we  are  concerned  with  the  downfall  of  a  man  whose 
ambition  led  him  in  gaining  his  ends  to  choose  the  quicker 
^nethod  of  crime.  Viewed  in  this  way,  the  supernatural 
becomes  little  short  of  a  defect  in  the  play,  and  the  ques- 
tion of  Macbeth 's  moral  freedom  and  responsibility  assumes 
the  predominance.  Such  an  interpretation  explains  Mac- 
|  beth,  the  tyrant,  against  whom  all  wholesome  social  order 
is  arrayed,  but  it  does  not  explain  jVIacbeth,  the  symbol  of 
all  men  who  are  tempted  and  fall.  And  this,  it  seems,  is 

'      *~  -i .  -JUT    _••       ____± T^^L_^^_    f  ^fc""*"^«  !•••<•! ••••••••a  m~-~^*^~ii^**imi+ 

just  the  question  that  the  poet  is  endeavoring  to  solve. 
D^pes  sin,  he  asks,  have  its  origin  wholly  within  the  human 
soul;  wholly  without;  or  is  it  the  result  of  an  interactior 
jif  both  the  physical  and  the  metaphysical  worlds  of  evil. 
The  wliole  problem  of  the  play  therefore  turns  on  the 
•  essential  reality  of  the  world  of  which  Hecate  and  the 
witches  are  the  representatives.  That  the  people  believed 
in  this  world  we  know,  and  in  the  play  we  discover  its 
representatives  actively  engaged  in  inciting  men  to  crime. 
As  in  the  case  of  the  Ghost  in  .Hamlet,  the  dramatist  has 
taken  every  precaution  to  present  the  witches  as  objective 
realities ;  they  are  revealed  in  four  scenes,  separated  wholly 
from  normal  human  beings ;.  Banquo  is  amazed  at  them, 
and  Macbeth,  himself  r  asks  them  what  they  are.  With 
their  speech,  however,  he  learns,  becoming  immediately 
aware  that  his  inward  thought,  whose  "murder  yet  is 
fantastical"  had  found  an  echo  where  he  least  expected  it. 
The  witches  did  not  tell  him  to  commit  murder;  all  that 
was  necessary  was  for  them  to  suggest  the  fact  of  the 


45 


and  they  could  trust  Macbeth  to  overcome  the 
obstacles  in  his  way  just  as  they  would  have  him.  The 
element  of  moral  courage  lacking  in  his  nature,  the  absence 
of  which  prevented  his  taking  the  first  step  in  crime,  was 
supplied  by  his  wife. 

Macbeth — 

If  we  should  fail? 
Lady  Macbeth — 

We  fail! 

But  screw  your  courage  to  the  sticking-place, 
And  we'll  not  fail.  (1:7:59) 

The  unfolding  of  the  characters  of  Macbeth  and  Lady 
Macbeth  under  the  suggested  temptation  is  a  most  striking 
evidence  of  Shakespeare's  psychological  insight.  With  all 
of  her  ambition  and  her  astonishing  powrer  of  will,  Lady 
Macbeth  is  nevertheless  a  wroman,  and  woman-like  she  has 
the  power  to  rise,  in  order  to  meet  a  crisis,  to  a  sublime 
height,  even  though  it  be  a  height  of  evil.  Nevertheless  she 
lacks  the  ability  to  preserve  that  altitude.  As  long  as  her 
husband  shares  his  plans  with  her,  she  aids  and  protects 
him;  but  once  he  withdraws  his  confidence,  she  becomes  the 
victim  of  a  melancholy  and  remorse  that  end  in  suicide. 
Her  dreadful  secret,  which  she  thinks  is  securely  locked 
up  in  her  heart,  is  revealed  to  the  world  in  her  sleep,  and 
she,  who  had  asserted  that  "a  little  water  clears  us  of  this 
deed,"  and  that  "the  sleeping  and  the  dead  are  but  as 
pictures/'  wandered  lonely  in  the  night,  with  words  on  her 
lips  that  reveal  a  soul  on  fire : 

Lady  Macbeth — 

What  need  we  fear  who  knows  it,  when  none  can  call 
our  power  to  account?  Yet  who  would  have  thought  the 
old  man  to  have  had  so  much  blood  in  him? 

(V:l:41) 

Here's  the  smell  of  blood  still:  all  the  perfumes  of 
Arabia  will  not  sweeten  this  little  hand. 

(V:l:59) 


46 


Shakespeare  has  given  us,  in  the  portrayal  of  the  inner 
lives  of  Macbeth  and  his  wife,  a  vision  of  two  souls  in 
torment,  due  in  Macbeth 's  case  to  fears  of  the  future,  and 
that  of  Lady  Macbeth  to  remorse  for  the  past.  Lady 
Macbeth  lived  and  sinned  for  her  husband 's  sake,  and  when 
he  forsook  her  there  was  nothing  for  her  to  live  for,  and 
death  was  the  only  solution  to  her  problem.  "She  should 
have  died  hereafter, ' '  and  ' '  all  our  yesterdays  have  lighted 
fools  the  way  to  dusty  death"  was  her  requiem,  spoken  by 
the  one  for  whom  she  had  made  this  sacrifice. 

Macbeth,  on  the  contrary,  reacts  but  slowly  to  the 
inciting  cause.  He  enters  upon  his  career  of  crime  with 
hesitation  and  foreboding,  yet  with  each  misdeed  he  becomes 
more  hardened  until  at  last  we  hear  him  saying : 

For  mine  own  good 

All  causes  shall  give  way:  I  am  in  blood 
Stepp'd  in  so  far  that,  should  I  wade  no  more, 
Beturning  were  as  tedious  as  go  o'er. 

(111:4:134) 

His  irresolution,  however,  is  due  to  ignoble  causes;  the 
things  that  he  fears  are  nothing  more  than  popular  censure 
and  loss  of  reputation : 

We  will  proceed  no  further  in  this  business: 
He  hath  honoured  me  of  late;  and  I  have  bought 
Golden  opinions  from  all  sorts  of  people. 

'          (1:7:31) 

But  in  these  cases 

We  still  have  judgment  here;  that  we  but  teach 
Bloody  instruction,  which  being  taught,  return 
To  plague  the  inventor:  this  even-handed  justice 
Commends  the  ingredients  of  our  poison 'd  chalice 
To  our  own  lips.  (1:7:7) 

Itjs_  noteworthy  that  nowhere  does  Macbeth  ascribe  his 
crimes  to  the  Weird  Sisters.  Nor  does  he  appear  to  recog- 
nize the  fact  that  he  himself  has  caused  the  prophecy  to 
come  true ;  or  that  he  contained  in  himself  both  the  prophecy 
and  its  fulfillment.  Being  therefore  responsible  he  cannot 


47 


escape  his  nemesis.  Xhsre-Js.--^ sublime. jrony^even,  in  the 
lying  prophecies,  which,  by  lulling  him  into  a  false  security, 
render  the  punishment  administered  to  him  by  outraged  law 
all  the  more  terrible. 

Macbeth 's  defect  was  not  wholly  ambition;  it  was  as 
much  selfishness  and  vanity.  Hence,  in  their  utterances 
the  witches  had  appealed  to  the  weakest  points  in  his  nature. 
Like  Richard,  he  loved  but  himself : 

For  mine  own  good  / 

All  causes  shall  give  way: 

(111:4:134) 

Hecate — 

And,  which  is  worse,  all  you  have  done 

Hath  been  for  a  wayward  son, 

Spiteful  and  wrathful;  who  as  others  do, 

Loves  for  his  own  ends,  not  for  you.          (111:5:10) 

This  vanity,  itself,  becomes  a  part  of  his  punishment, 
for  power  that  cannot  be  exerted  upon  something  becomes 
a  vain  thing,  as  Macbeth  discovers  when  he  has  alienated 
all  of  those  elements  that  render  the  kingship  worthy. 

Although  Macbeth  is  not  conscious  of  the  fact  that  he 
bears  a  spiritual  relation  to  the  witches,  that  there  is  such 
relation  the  play  itself  makes  clear.  We  are,  indeed^  made 
partakers  of  the  councils  of  the  Weird  Sisters  and  know 
tnm  they  recognize  in  him  an  ally  fighting  for  the  triumph 
of  evil: 

1st  Witch — 

When  shall  we  three  meet  again?        ^ 

2d  Witch — 

When  the  battle's  lost  and  won. 

26,  Witch— 


Upon  the  heath. 

'  'j 


3d  Witch— 

There  to  meet  with  Macbeth. 

(1:1:1) 


48 


3d  Witch— 

A  drum,  a  drum!    Macbeth  doth  come! 

(1:3:30) 

1st  Witch — 

Why,  how  now,  Hecate!    you  look  angerly. 
Hecate — 

Have  I  not  reason,  beldames  as  you  are, 

Saucy  and  overbold?    How  did  you  dare 

To  trade  and  traffic  with  Macbeth 

In  riddles  and  affairs  of  death? 

Upon  the  corner  of  the  moon 

There  hangs  a  vaporous  drop  profound; 

And  that  distill 'd  by  magic  sleights 

Shall  raise  such  artificial  sprites 

As  by  the  strength  of  their  illusion 

Shall  draw  him  on  to  his  confusion: 

He  shall  spurn  fate,  scorn  death,  and  bear 

His  hopes    'bove  wisdom,  grace  and  fear: 

And  you  know  security 

Is  mortal's  chief est  enemy.  (111:5:1) 


It  is  manifest,  therefore,  that  Macbeth  in  its  deepest 
sense  is  a  portrayal  of  the  interaction  of  the  natural  and 
the  supernatural  worlds  of  evil.  The  latter  is  shown  to  be 
actively  at  work  endeavoring  to'  influence  men  to  become 
a  part  of  itself,  yet  the  statement  is  equally  clear  that  it  is 
potent  over  none  save  those  who  seek  it,  or  who  make  it 
their  good.10  Macbeth 's  hidden  self  was  subtly  allied  with 
tljat.  spiritual  cosmos  of  which  the  witches  were  the 
materialization,  and  the  whole  play  from  the  prophetic 
utterances  to  the  final  catastrophe  is  but  the  revelation  of 
the  disintegration  of  a  human  soul.  His  original  blight, 
a  tiny  infection  in  one  otherwise  noble,  stimulated  into 
activity  by  fair  words  from  foul  lips,  and  by  the  prompt- 

10  "Webster  acknowledges  'an  internal  mental  and  spiritual 
League  or  Covenant  betwixt  the  Devil  and  all  wicked  persons  .... 
this  spiritual  League  in  some  respects  and  in  some  persons  may  be, 
and  is  an  explicit  League,  that  is  the  persons  that  enter  into  it, 
are  or  may  be  conscious  of  it. '  "  Kittredge,  G.  L.,  Notes  on  Witch- 
craft, quoting  from  Webster,  John,  Displaying  of  Supposed  Witch- 
craft, 1677.  (American  Antiquarian  Soc.  Proceedings,  vol.  18,  pp. 
148-212.) 


40 


ings  of  his  wife,  slowly  spreads  throughout  his  whole 
nature,  until  it  becomes  visible  to  the  world  in  his  amazing 
crimes.  He  hardly  understands  himself  the  reason  why  the 
things  for  which  he  has  made  such  sacrifices  should  yield 
him  so  little  joy. 

Seyton!    I  am  sick  at  heart, 
When  I  behold — Seyton,  I  say — This  push 
Will  cheer  me  even,  or  disseat  me  now. 
I  have  lived  long  enough:  my  way  of  life 
Is  fall'n  into  the  sear,  the  yellow  leaf; 
And  that  which  should  accompany  old  age, 
As  honour,  love,  obedience,  troops  of  friends, 
I  must  not  look  to  have;  but,  in  their  stead, 
Curses,  not  loud  but  deep,  mouth-honour,  breath 
Which  the  poor  heart  would  fain  deny,  and  dare  not. 

(V:3:19) 

No  wonder  he  says  of  the  witches : 

Infected  be  the  air  whereon  they  ride, 

And  damn'd  all  those  that  trust  them.      (IV:1:138) 

Macbeth,  furthermore,  did  not  stand  alone.  He  was  the 
first  man  in  the  state;  at  the  beginning  a  leader,  at  the 
end  a  king.  Had  it  been  otherwise,  the  effects  of  his  fall 
would  have  been  less  disastrous.  As  leader  and  king,  how- 
ever, his  responsibility  was  increased,  for,  in  a  sense,  he 
was  the  source  of  law.  His  deeds,  however,  were  destruc- 
tive of  law,  hence  he  corrupted  his  office  and  instilled  his 
contagion  into  the  body  politic. 

MacbetJi — 

Doctor,  the  thanes  fly  from  me. 
Come,  sir,  dispatch.    If  thou  couldst,  doctor,  cast 
The  water  of  my  land,  to  find  her  disease 
And  purge  it  to  a  sound  and  pristine  health, 
I  would  applaud  thee  to  the  very  echo, 
That  should  applaud  again.  (V:3:48) 

In  view  of  these  facts,  it  seems  clear,  therefore,  that 
t^jDjoetM^rj^esjthe_use  _of  the  sujpernatural  jn^Macbeth  a 
.degree  beyond  its  portrayal  in  Julius  Caesar  and  Hamlet. 
He  rendered  the  play  more  intelligible  anct  popular  to  his 


50 


own  audiences  by  personifying  the  spirits  of  evil  in  the 
form  of  the  night-hags  of  tradition,  yet  when  intently 
observed,  and  the  relations  they  bear  to  Macbeth,  as  a 
human  being,  are  considered,  they  take  on  a  higher  signifi- 
cation and  Income  concrete  symbols  of  that  element  of 
negation  and  destruetiveness  that  is  opposed  to  all  order 
and  growth;  to  virtue,  indeed,  in  its  every  phase.  The 
poet  by  the  means  of  these  foul  creatures  gives  uVa  dim 
vision  of  the  fact  that  disorder  and  evil  in  the  physical 
world  have  their  correspondences  in  the  world  of  spirit ; 
and,  as  man  partakes  of  the  elements  of  both  worlds  he  is 
subject  to  influences  from  both.  Whether  Shakespeare 
believed  in  witches,  is  unimportant,  but  that  he  did  believe 
in  the  spiritual  state,  or  condition,  of  which  they  are  but 
the  projection,  is  of  vast  importance,  and,  I  think,  demon- 
strable. The  Witches  are  spirits  of  evil  in  its  most  active 
and  malignant  form.  They  are  dwellers  in  the  whirlwinds, 
and  of  the  night;  they  plague  mankind,  and  deceive  him 
by  factitious  shows;  they  brew  poisonous  broths  composed 
of  vile  creatures,  of  dead  bodies,  of  the  remnants  of  things. 
Now  what  is  evil  according  to  the  poet,  as  may  be  inferred 
from  his  plays  taken  as  a  whole  ?  ^  It  is  the  absence  of  light, 
.of  order,  of  beauty,  of  faith,  of  loyalty ;  absence,  indeed, 
of  all  of  those  qualities  that  permit  life  to  unfold  into  its 
flowers  of  perfect  individuals,  families,  and  states.  In 
contrast  with  the  Witches  and  their  infernal  cosmos,  stand 
the  poet's  words  in  the  Sonnets,  expressing  his  conception 
of  the  world  of  beauty,  truth,  and  morality: 

Therefore  my  verse  to  constancy  confined, 
One  thing  expressing,  leaves  out  difference. 
•   Fair^  kind,  and  true/ '  is  all  my  argument, 
<  'Pair,  kind,  and  trae,      varying  to  other  words; 
And  in  this  change  is  my  invention  spent, 
Three  themes  in  one,  which  wondrous  scope  affords. 
"Fair,  kind,  and  true,"  have  often  lived  alone, 
Which  three  till  now  never  kept  seat  in  one. 

(Sonnets,  CV) 


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